The early legislative season of 2021 has been ripe with newly drafted bills with the specific intent of either establishing legal sports betting within a given state, or expanding the options that are already present.
The onset of COVID-19 in 2020 combined with the aftereffects of the 2018 repeal of PASPA by the Supreme Court of the United States created a scenario where the tax dollars from sports betting that were escaping to offshore destinations caught the attention of regional lawmakers.
Powerful lobbying efforts from domestic sportsbook operators like FanDuel, DraftKings, BetMGM, and others have capitalized on these state legislature’s soft stance on sports betting, and now, two more territories have pushed through laws
Wyoming Sports Betting
Laws have now been passed that will regulate legal sports betting in Wyoming. Also of major significance is the fact that these new gaming laws feature a minimum age of 18 to participate in domestic WY sports betting.
Being a resident of Wyoming is not a prerequisite to placing a bet on sports within the state lines, so there is likely to be a large uptick in visitors traveling to the region, especially gamblers that are under the age of 21.
Another oddball aspect of Wyoming’s sports betting bill is that wagers can be made at domestic sportsbooks using cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin, Stellar, or Cardano.
Our staff has yet to discover a domestic sportsbook or casino that accepts cryptocurrency, so we’ll keep our eyes on this developing situation in Wyoming and report back once we know more.
The acceptance of Bitcoin has so far been limited to offshore sports betting sites because they are less focused on the US Dollar, and prefer the blockchain-based security that BTC provides. It is likely that WY lawmakers simply added the language to make the bill future-proof, and only time will tell if any Bitcoin bets are made within the state.
New York Mobile Sports Betting
New York Governor Andrew Cuomo has successfully led the charge to make mobile sports betting in the Empire State legal. For far too long, legal sports betting in New York at a domestic book has been limited to their handful of in-state casinos.
Providing for mobile sports betting applications in New York State will allow for wagers to be placed on professional or college sports from anywhere inside its borders, and considering the massive population present, tax dollar collections are expected to rise exponentially.
The state is currently experiencing a $59 billion budget shortfall, and although sports betting will not close that gap, every little bit helps, especially when Governor Cuomo is facing several allegations of sexual misconduct as well as using fraudulent data to report COVID-19 deaths.
Source: New York Magazine
