A Nickel (Jeez) For Your Thoughts
The National Council of Legislators from Gaming States (NCLGS) was short on big headlines, but it provides an excellent bellwether for the legislative outlook in 2024.
The Bulletin Board
NEWS: A look back at the highlights from the NCLGS conference held over the weekend in Florida.
NCLGS ODDS & ENDS: Florida Bills; NCLGS History; Betting Scandal Expected; Oklahoma Sports Betting Update.
WEEKEND CATCHUP: NJ Smoking Ban Compromise; PA Skill Game Appeal; Prime Sports rising up the charts.
NEWS: Missouri has two new sports betting bills (and a potential ballot referendum), but a familiar problem remains.
AROUND the WATERCOOLER: #NCLGS on social media.
STRAY THOUGHTS: Screech has a straight.
SPONSOR’S MESSAGE - Underdog: the most innovative company in sports gaming.
At Underdog we use our own tech stack to create the industry’s most popular games, designing products specifically for the American sports fan.
Join us as we build the future of sports gaming.
Visit: https://underdogfantasy.com/careers
Recapping the NCLGS Winter Meeting
The National Council of Legislators from Gaming States (NCLGS) Winter meeting was a rather banal event - which isn’t a bad thing. There were no major announcements, no bombs dropped, just measured discussion about the gambling industry.
The big announcement coming out of the conference was the formation of a committee to create a framework states can follow to legalize online gambling.
New NCLGS President, West Virginia Del. Shawn Fluharty, made the announcement.
According to Fluharty, the committee will bring stakeholders together for public hearings, perhaps as soon as March, with the goal of releasing the framework at the upcoming NCLGS Summer meeting in July in Pittsburgh.
“NCLGS is forming a committee on model legislation, and our first task is implementing and organizing model legislation on iGaming,” Fluharty said.
NCLGS will also consult with academics and the public as it crafts the model legislation framework.
NCLGS Odds & Ends: Florida Bills; NCLGS History; Betting Scandal Expected; Oklahoma Sports Betting Update
Jessica Welman tweeted the following news: “FL Gaming Control Commission Vice Chair Julie Brown tells the NCLGS audience there will be 9 gaming bills in Florida this year, four of which FGCC is supportive of.” In a follow-up, Welman said one of the bills would be fantasy-related, and that bill dropped Sunday, as tweeted by Daniel Wallach.
I highly recommend Matthew Kredell’s article on the history of NCLGS and how it is approaching the ever-thorny issue of online gambling published on Play USA.
Per Covers’ Michael McClymont: “NCLGS discussion on responsible gaming this morning includes concerns about market manipulation and consumer confidence. “It’s inevitable that there will be a major sports betting scandal because there is an enormous amount of money at stake, mind-boggling, eye-popping amounts.”
Jessica Welman also relayed this bit of not-so-great news on the Oklahoma sports betting front: “Rep. Steve Bashore of Oklahoma says there are some lawmakers in the state that think sports betting won’t get done until Gov. Kevin Stitt terms out in 3 years.”
Also, check the Around the Watercooler section below for more NCLGS chatter.
Weekend Catchup: NJ Smoking Ban Compromise; PA Skill Game Appeal; Prime Sports Rising
After a failed effort in the 2023 lame-duck session, New Jersey state Senator Vince Polistina will seek a smoking ban compromise in 2024. “The casinos believe that they can meet our goal of eliminating employee and patron exposure to secondhand smoke with a structured plan and additional capital investment into their properties over the next couple of years,” Polistana told the Press of AC in mid-December. Per GGB News, the new bill would gradually phase out smoking.
The fight over the legality of so-called skill games in Pennsylvania isn’t over yet (as mentioned twice last week, here and here). The industry is appealing the Pennsylvania Commonwealth Court’s ruling in favor of skill game suppliers to the Pennsylvania Supreme Court.
Prime Sports continues to climb the handle rankings in Ohio and is now in the Top 10. However, the company continues to produce little in the way of revenue (17th out of 20 operators), and in a freak occurrence, even gave one bettor free money, as Prime’s Joe Brennan relayed, “Special situation. Fella flew into Cleveland airport, sat on the concourse and made 500k in bets, got back on the plane and flew home. Gave him a deposit match for his trouble. Nice guy.”
Missouri Sports Betting Bills Face a Familiar Problem
Missouri has spent several years trying to get a sports betting bill across the finish line, but standing in its way is one (very large) issue: VLTs.
A small group of lawmakers led by State Sen. Denny Hoskins has thwarted efforts to legalize sports betting thanks largely to Missouri’s filibuster rules - which have proved to be an impenetrable force field over the previous two legislative sessions.
2024 is unlikely to be any different, but that won’t stop the legislature from giving it the old college try, as the state already has two competing measures to choose from.
The first (SB 824) is from Hoskins, and in addition to sports betting, it seeks to legalize VLTs.
The second (SB 852) was sponsored by State Sen. Tony Luetkemeyer, the Majority Caucus Chair.
The crux of Luetkemeyer’s bill is as follows:
Each riverboat casino in Missouri could partner with up to three online operators.
Professional sports teams can partner with a single online operator.
There is a $100,000 licensing fee (for four years).
Operators would be taxed at 12%, with promotional deductions scaling back from 100% to 0% over five years.
The sports betting elements of Hoskins’ bill are similarly structured but with a tax rate of 10%.
There is also an effort spearheaded by the state’s professional sports teams to get sports betting on the November ballot in Missouri. Several petitions have been filed and approved for circulation (signature gathering).
Around the Watercooler
Social media conversations, rumors, and gossip.
More from NCLGS.
SBC Americas Jessica Welman was on hand with some insightful commentary:
And this from Washington State State Rep. Chris Stearns [highlight mine]:
And more on Florida from Mike Mazzeo of Legal Sports Report:
Stray Thoughts
One of the funnier moments from my poker playing days took place late at night in the Foxwoods poker room. It was a very lively game and included what may have been the most obnoxious player I have ever sat with. The only reason he wasn’t dragged from his seat and beaten to a pulp was due to the fact he was losing for hours.
One dealer started calling him “Screech” (from Saved by the Bell), and the nickname stuck. New dealers would sit down and say, “Which one of you is Screech?” He was that level of annoying. He had dealers discussing him and openly laughing at him, which is not a behavior you see every day from poker room dealers who are more than used to annoying players.
Anyhow, at one point in the evening, “Screech” held up the game for about 15 minutes, arguing that he had made a straight and won the pot. The board read something like 4-J-J-Q-K, and Screech was adamant that his A-2 completed a straight and just kept pointing at each specific card and repeating over and over while imitating Billy Madison spelling cheese in the second-grade spelling bee, “Jaaaack, Queeeen, KING, Ace, TWO!” This went on for 15 minutes.
He stayed for about two more orbits and complained the whole time. To everyone’s dismay, he got the last of his money (probably his twelfth buy-in) all in on what he said was his final hand and tripled up. I have never seen a table and dealers rooting for someone to get felted more than Screech.