Could this be the year that Hawaii legalizes sports betting? Reservations remain, but the proposal keeps taking steps forward.
The push to introduce online sports wagering continues to go further than it ever has before in the Aloha State legislature. Already approved by the full House chamber, the crossover bill got the green light in Senate committees on Thursday, albeit with another key amendment.
In a joint session on March 13, the Senate committees on Commerce and Consumer Protection (CPN) and on Economic Development and Tourism (EDT) both unanimously recommended that HB 1308 be passed, although several members voted yes with reservations.
Rep. Daniel Holt’s bill, which would set up both legal online sports betting and legal daily fantasy sports in the state, went through several amendments during its time in the House. Most notably, the suggested license fee and the suggested taxation rate are both blank after they were erased upon concerns they were too low. The initial suggestions had been $250,000 for a five-year license and a 10% tax.
In Thursday’s hearing, another significant change switched which governmental department would be responsible for regulating the market.
Not starting from zero
In Thursday’s session, the Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs‘ Director Nadine Ando warned the committee that she feels the time, effort and resources required to set up a legal sports betting industry from scratch have not been adequately considered.
She opined that establishing a regulated market “from zero” could prove to be “considerably complex and very expensive.”
Some speakers also suggested that as an in-progress study of the potential economic impacts of legalization has not yet been concluded, it would be wrong to pass a bill approving a legal market before that process is completed.
However, multiple senators stressed that the state is not starting from scratch, as unregulated gambling is already rife, an argument that was also made again by representatives from DraftKings and BetMGM.
“You can change the VPN on your phone to be out of Nigeria or another state,” Sen. Glenn Wakai noted. “…We’re not starting from zero, there’s a prevalence of gambling here.”
“I know that any Sunday, if you’re watching football, almost everybody is betting on the game …” added Sen. Donna Mercado Kim. “I’m sure law enforcement people sitting in this room have bet on games at home, as well … It’s already there and looking in our face.”
Late change of HI betting regulator
In the absence of an existing gaming committee, and with no proposal to establish one included in the bill’s language, a key discussion before the vote centered on who exactly will regulate the new legal industry.
The bill proposed to put that responsibility in the hands of the DCCA, but Ando suggested that her department may not be well-suited to running a new regulated online betting industry.
“I don’t think anybody here has really set out what would be involved to build something like this from the ground up,” Ando said. “Most of the states where this is legalized have done so through a separate gaming commission or agency that is charged only with regulating this.”
Before moving to pass, noting Ando’s concerns, Decoite made an amendment to replace the DCCA with the Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism (DBEDT).
Ultimately, both committees jointly moved to recommend passage of the bill with that key regulatory change included. Once again, the green light came with a caveat that there is a lot of work still to be done on the details.
The bill now heads to one more Senate committee, Ways and Means, before potentially going onto the full Senate floor.
