A federal bill introduced last week by Senator Charles Schumer, a Democrat from New York State, and Senator Orrin Hatch, Republican of Utah, would have the U.S. Justice Department set minimum standards for states to offer sports betting. Their co-sponsored bill does not explicitly hand the professional sports leagues their cut of gambling revenue they are looking for, (the so-called “integ-ity fees’), however, it does not preclude them for seeking their slice-of-the sports betting-pie, either.
Schumer & Hatch look to go ‘Back to the Future’
Senator Schumer spoke in an impassioned manner of his belief that the Federal Government take back control of sports betting;
“I knew that Congress had an obligation to ensure that the integrity of the games we love was never compromised,” Schumer said. “That is why I believe the time is now to establish a strong national integrity standard for sports betting that will protect consumers and the games themselves from corruption.” the Senator concluded.
Hatch said he has begun formalizing the legislative language shortly after the Supreme Court ruling in May 2018;
“I began working with stakeholders to ensure we were doing everything possible to protect the integrity of sports from corruption. The legislation we’ve introduced today is the culmination of eight months of high-level meetings, discussions, and negotiations, and will serve as a placeholder for the next Congress, should they decide to continue working to address these issues,” said Hatch, who soon faces retirement and is looking to make this legalization his swansong from Congress and go out with a bang, impressing his strongly anti-gambling constituents from Mormon Utah.
Hurting from the legal beating they received from the State of New Jersey, the professional leagues suddenly jumped onboard expressing their support for the co-sponsored Congressional bill proposed by Hatch and Schumer. The NFL, MLB and PGA all came out with prepared statements in support of the bill shortly after its announcement.
It is anticipated that the eight states that already have legal sports betting could continue to offer sports wagering if the bill enters into the debate phase, although it is unsure what could happen to the states that may well rule for sports betting in this January’s legislative sessions of their respective state houses.