The Oregon Lottery Commission has been positioning themselves to expand gambling to sports. After a decisive vote on Friday, a new bill was approved that will bring sports betting to the state. Illinois has made multiple attempts to propose a bill lately – will any of them pass?
Oregon
The Lottery Commission of Oregon recent gave their input last week that essentially recommended expanding gambling through sports betting. Just yesterday, the Commission unanimously voted in favor of seeking out a contract to do just that.
This is great news for the state of Oregon, as they’ve been in a good spot to look towards legalizing sports betting for quite a while now. They plan to begin with strictly professional games, with college level games still off the table.
The timeline for this contract would allow people to place their bets in time for the start of this year’s NFL season. This year, the NFL will begin games in September, so that would give Oregon five months to work out the details.
The Oregon Lottery already has a mobile app developed to allow users to conveniently play the lottery. The contract they’ll look for will allow bettors to place their bets directly on the mobile app, using the already-existing infrastructure to allow the accessibility.
While it isn’t full legalization of sports betting, it’s a great sign that Oregon is certainly trending that way. After this recent vote, it gives hope that full legalization might be on the table for 2020.
Illinois
While Oregon is busy making positive movement towards sports betting legalization, Illinois has yet to agree on a conclusive bill. The House Subcommittee debated last week over several different options for sports betting, but there is some disagreement on how to proceed.
One topic that everyone did agree on is that sports betting should be available on mobile devices, eliminating the need to place bets at in-person venues. Standing in the way of that are a few of the amendments that were proposed. One would call for a tax rate of nearly double the standard, and another proposes that there should be a fee paid directly to the sports league being bet on, something that isn’t a common practice.
The legislative session will run through the end of May, so that gives plenty of time for representatives to work together to form a solid bill. None of the five proposed so far are clear winners, but Representative Mike Zalewski believes a combination of changes in each bill might work to form a passable bill everyone will be satisfied with.
Sports betting isn’t in Illinois yet, but things are looking good for it’s chance of being legalized quite soon. The amount of conversation it is generating can only work to help a bill get passed.
