SPORTSBETTING FOR DELAWARE

8 June 2007

Another American Anomaly!

The US legal scene regarding sportsbetting is about to sprout yet another confusing anomaly with news that Delaware state legislators are planning to introduce a bill legalising a state-run sportsbook under the aegis of the Delaware Lottery.

Despite the activities of both enforcement agencies and politicians across much of the USA to prosecute sportsbetting (with a few notable exceptions such as horse racing) the new legislation will allow the practice in Delaware because it was not included in a 1992 federal law banning sports betting. This exemption was granted to the state because it once operated a failed sports lottery. Although operational activity on the project ceased before the end of the 1976 NFL season, it was enough to keep the option open in Delaware.

Now, according to local media, state Republican Representative Vincent Lofink has announced that he plans to introduce a bill that would allow the Delaware Lottery to set up a state-run sports book, probably linking in neatly at the state's three existing racinos.

Flourishing a new study showing that such an operation could garner revenues for the state of up to $70 million, Lofink said he'd like the legislation to reach the state House as soon as possible. The House Gaming and Pari-Mutuels Committee has already spent 90 minutes reviewing the March study by Morowitz Gaming Advisors LLC for the state's Video Lottery Advisory Council (VLAC).

VLAC commissioned the independent study in support of its project aimed at using the Delaware sportsbetting loophole in order to compete more effectively with gambling on offer in Pennsylvania and New Jersey.

Sportsbetting has been an issue hotly debated in the state since late 2002, but approval has been plagued by splits within the General Assembly and opposition from Governor Ruth Ann Minner. It is likely to incur the wrath of the professional sports leagues, too which supported and lobbied for the federal law to prevent the corruption of sport.

Jay Moyer, a special counsel to the NFL, said that, if Lofink's legislation starts to move, the NFL, NBA, NHL and Major League Baseball would "make our presence forcefully known." In 2003's legislative skirmishing on the subject, the leagues prepared a legal brief questioning whether sports betting complied with the state's constitution. "We stand foursquare in our opposition," Moyer said.

The NFL has also attacked the Morowitz study, hiring William Latham III, former head of the Economics Department at the University of Delaware, who questioned whether the Morowitz survey is a valid basis for moving ahead. Latham says the Internet polling that showed support for gaming was of questionable reliability and that the study's predictions of increased gaming and economic gain based on that polling were purely speculative.

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