Nobody Will Lose Sleep Over It
A new survey of Canadians highlights the general public's mixed feelings about legal sports betting.
The Bulletin Board
NEWS: A poll of Canadians indicates strong support for sports betting advertising bans and greater government intervention.
LEGISLATIVE UPDATES: Alabama sports betting is hanging on by a thread; Maryland online casinos are unlikely until 2026; Missouri survey.
NEWS: Will a Connecticut Tribe(s) take over the MGM Springfield Casino?
BEYOND the HEADLINE: SCOTUS declines to hear Mashpee Wampanoag land-in-trust case, paving the way for a tribal casino in MA.
AROUND the WATERCOOLER: Montana bucks the player prop trend.
STRAY THOUGHTS: Moments in the sun.
SPONSOR’S MESSAGE - Sporttrade was borne out of the belief that the golden age of sports betting has yet to come. Combining proprietary technology, thoughtful design, and capital markets expertise, our platform endeavors to modernize sports betting for a more equitable, responsible, and accessible future.
Learn more about what makes Sporttrade an unparalleled player experience here.
The Public’s Discordant Views on Legal Sports Betting
A troubling survey of Canadians suggests that the general public is becoming fed up with gambling advertisements. According to Maru Public Opinion, which randomly polled 1,534 Canadian adults who are Maru Voice Canada online panelists, 59% of respondents favor an immediate nationwide ban on sports betting advertisements.
The results should set off alarm bells, as the poll indicates the general public won’t lose any sleep over an advertising crackdown. Further, 53% of respondents said, “sports betting needs more government oversight and regulation.”
The polling results also point to a growing fear of sports betting’s effects on youths and a feeling that operators are not doing their part in terms of responsibility:
A majority (75%) of Canadians say there’s a need to protect youth and children from sports betting commercials/marketing. Almost as many (72%) fear that many young adults will go deep into debt with online sports betting now available.
A majority (62%) of Canadians believe sports betting owners are not acting responsibly with their ads and marketing.
These findings, if replicable, should alarm sports betting operators in Canada and the US. Any scandal, and there is no shortage to choose from, could usher in sweeping changes.
Once those ad bans are in place, they are likely to stay, as the public won’t start writing to lawmakers and regulators about how much they miss sports betting ads.
Legislative Updates: AL Hangs On By a Thread; MD Hopes Dashed; Positive Polling in Missouri
Alabama sports betting on life support: The Alabama House and Senate are forming a conference committee to find a compromise between the conflicting bills passed in each chamber. “… It’s such a distance between the two. They’re not even close bookends,” Rep. Chris Blackshear told the AP. The House version authorizes a state lottery, mobile and retail sports betting, and casinos. The Senate bill would authorize a lottery and allow the governor to negotiate gaming compacts with tribes.
Latest update with comments from several key lawmakers from Alabama.com
Previous Alabama gambling coverage on STTP (House Bill) (Senate Bill)
Maryland online casinos are off the table: Online gambling continues to take L’s in 2024, as Maryland’s legislative session has come to a close without the inclusion of online gambling in the budget, thereby ending its hopes this year. The failure was not unexpected. “Neither iGaming nor the referendum will move forward this session,” State Sen. Ron Watson told US Bets last week. With the state going the referendum route, the next effort is unlikely to occur until 2026.
Missouri survey shows support for sports betting: A February survey conducted by Saint Louis University and YouGov of 900 likely voters found 60% support for legalized sports betting and just 25% opposed. The results align with a January poll from FOX 4 and Emerson University that found 62% support.
SPONSOR’S MESSAGE - SUBSCRIBE NOW to Zero Latency, the new podcast from Eilers & Krejcik Gaming that provides unparalleled insight into the U.S. online gambling industry through interviews with industry insiders and analysis from EKG experts.
Will a CT Tribe Buy the MGM Springfield Casino?
As previously reported, the MGM Springfield Casino is up for sale, and Connecticut’s gaming tribes, Mashantucket Pequot and Mohegan, are among the potential buyers.
According to The Day, a sale to one of Connecticut’s gaming tribes makes sense, but tribal leaders are keeping their cards close to their chests.
Mohegan’s President and CEO Ray Pineault said, “We are aware of the potential sale of MGM Springfield… We regularly look at various opportunities that would continue to grow the Mohegan brand.”
Mashantucket Tribal Chairman Rodney Butler said Foxwoods is “always exploring opportunities to expand the Foxwoods brand.”
The two tribes could also join forces to take over the Springfield casino, which they saw as a threat to their southern Connecticut properties as the Springfield casino’s location would draw customers from Northern Connecticut and create a chokepoint for the tribes’ Northern New England customer bases.
Given the threat, the Mashantucket Pequot and Mohegan tribes teamed up and proposed a jointly owned satellite casino near the Massachusetts border (that has never come to fruition), which MGM vehemently opposed. That led to legal battles, nor has MGM Springfield had the severe impact the tribes feared.
As Clyde Barrow, a professor of public policy at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley and general manager of MA-based consulting firm Pyramid Associates, told The Day, “The tribes were planning a $300 million to $400 million investment in Tribal Winds, their East Windsor project. He said it would make more sense for the tribes to buy an existing casino rather than build a new one.”
Beyond the Headline: MA Tribal Casino Back on the Agenda
After nearly a decade of legal battles, the Mashpee Wampanoag’s dream of bringing a casino to Taunton, Massachusetts, is closer to becoming a reality.
The United States Supreme Court declined an appeal by Taunton residents to reverse a US District Court ruling in favor of the Mashpee Wampanoag tribe’s land-in-trust request. The District Court had overturned a previous ruling against the tribe.
The case began in 2015 and has been a legal rollercoaster that has caused tumult within the tribe.
“The DOI placed the tribe’s land in trust in 2015. It rescinded that decision in 2018 following a successful lawsuit by Taunton residents. In 2020, District Court Judge Paul L. Friedman stepped in, calling the 2018 DOI decision “arbitrary, capricious, an abuse of discretion and contrary to law.” The DOI dropped its appeal of the ruling in 2021. In 2023, another District Court ruled against the Taunton residents, who filed an appeal with the US Court of Appeals.”
Further, the tribe became indebted to its casino partner Genting, who eventually ended the partnership and wrote off the $440 million loan it made to the tribe.
Meanwhile, Mashpee Wampanoag Chair Cedric Cromwell ran into his own legal troubles. In November 2022, Cromwell was convicted of “two counts of accepting bribes as an agent of an Indian tribal government, three counts of extortion under color of official right, and one count of conspiring to commit extortion.”
With a tribal casino on the table, the Massachusetts Gaming Commission has held off on awarding the commercial casino license in the Southeast Region to avoid a saturated market.
Sponsor’s Message - BroThrow.com is building the most player-friendly company in sports gaming.
Our subscription-based, no-juice sports betting platform provides the fairest, simplest way to bet on sports with your friends.
Check out our tech: https://brothrow.com/
Around the Watercooler
Social media conversations, rumors, and gossip.
Trends are made to be broken, and according to Geoff Zochodne, Montana isn’t going to cave to peer pressure regarding college player prop bets.
As I reported last week, 13 states have prohibited college player prop bets, and several others have indicated their willingness to follow suit.
Stray Thoughts
The NCAA Women’s tournament has set all kinds of viewership and betting records. I’ve seen a lot of chatter about this being the dawn of a new era of interest in women’s basketball and sports.
It’s possible, but I wonder how much of this is specifically Caitlin Clark-driven (credit where credit is due) and if that interest will follow Clark in her post-NCAA career or carry over to the next generation of women’s college basketball stars.
This wouldn’t be the first instance of a specific scenario creating a buzz around a particular event. The most obvious example is when a horse wins the first two legs of the Triple Crown, and suddenly, the Belmont Stakes becomes must-see TV.
Jon Miller, NBC president of programming, told the New York Times in 2018 that non-Triple Crown Belmont Stakes average 5.9 million viewers. However, when a Triple Crown is possible (2014 and 2015), viewership jumps to 19.6 million viewers.
I notice a changing interest in Olympic sports. Track and field’s popularity ebbs and flows, with Carl Lewis, Flo-Jo, Michael Johnson, and Usain Bolt capturing the sporting world’s imagination for brief instances. There was the Michael Phelps phenomenon in swimming. Greg Louganis in diving.
Some names are synonymous with a sport, and while the average person may make those connections, they wouldn’t know any of the current contenders. Look at popular Olympic sports like gymnastics or figure skating. There isn’t much interest outside of the Olympics, and the popularity largely depends on the strength of the athletes in any particular Olympic year.
Clark is supremely talented, but there is also a storyline around her college career (the loss last year and this year’s redemption game against LSU), and that second aspect is hard to replicate. People are tuning in to see her greatness AND the story arc unfold.