Washington D.C has approved legislation in recent months that will bring sports betting to the area, but it still might be another few months until regulations are set. Alabama is in the infant stages of moving towards sports betting, with a bill submitted just days ago to legalize the hobby.
April has been continued a strong start for sports betting legalization throughout the country. On Tuesday, Alabama proposed a bill to make sports betting legal, which signified the 37th state to introduce some form of legislation regarding the gambling of sports games. While their path to legalization is just beginning, Washington D.C already has the green light – but that doesn’t mean sports betting will be here as soon as you might be thinking.
Not-so-Sweet Home Alabama?
Alabama isn’t necessarily a gambling hotspot, especially when you consider that there is only one racetrack used in the state. To make matters worse, Alabama rejected a bill just last year that would’ve allowed daily fantasy sports. The state also does not have a lottery, and has rejected any attempts to form one.
With some background on the situation, it appears that Alabama is not very welcome to the idea of legalizing sports betting. That hasn’t stopped a bill from being proposed this year. Bill HB315 would create a sports betting commission for the state, and would include a tax rate of 10%. It would also allow users within the state to bet from their phone or computer.
There certainly seems to be mixed interest in sports betting within Alabama. It seems the House and Senate don’t care for it, but state representatives definitely see a benefit. It may not be here anytime soon, but there is still hope for sports betting to come to Alabama within a few years.
Delays in D.C
Sports betting is coming to D.C, after recently passing bills that amended the lottery and made sports betting legal. Although bills have been approved, regulations regarding sports betting haven’t been hammered out yet. This is scheduled to happen in June with implementation happening the following month.
This means that the earliest you’d be able to place a sports bet in D.C would be September. This is limited to placing bets in person though, as The District needs to develop an app for users to place bets through. D.C has yet to find a company to do this, but they expect the project to take around six months to complete once started. That means you definitely won’t see mobile bets being placed until next year.
D.C will have barebones sports betting by the end of the year, but it won’t be until next year that you’ll really have freedom to place bets anywhere.
