Key gaming experts were given the opportunity, briefly, to add to the ongoing debate regarding the introduction of federal oversight of sports betting in the US on Fox News recently. The broadcast follows new calls for federal regulation by Senator’s Chuck Schumer and Orrin Hatch. Both have publicly stated they support a federal structure rather than a state-by-state approach to legislation post-PASPA.
First to speak was Sara Slane, senior vice president of public affairs at the American Gaming Association. “The federal law that was in place that the Supreme Court deemed unconstitutional was an abject failure,” she commented. “Leave it up the states to decide whether or not they want to have gaming in their borders.”
Fox also sought to gain the view from Nevada which, prior to the strike down of PASPA, was the only state to have a fully up and running, long-established sports betting offer. Nevada gaming attorney Kate Lowenhar-Fisher, citing the experience and knowledge of private bookmakers, remarked: “Those are the people best positioned to spot betting anomalies and so forth. There has never been an issue with game integrity when we’ve had legalized sports betting in Nevada for many, many decades.”
Putting the case for federal control was sports and entertainment legal expert Domenic Romano who commented:“If people start to lose faith in the objectivity of your sport then that’s a problem. Federal regulation is there to, presumably, assist in the preservation of the integrity of these sports.”
The broadcast came to a close with Fox News multimedia reporter Andrew Craft suggesting: “If federal regulation is established in states like Nevada, which already allow bets to take place, there is the possibility officials could sue to block regulations.”
