House votes in favour of sports betting in Maryland

The House of Representatives voted in favour of including sports betting on the November ballot.

US.- Maryland’s House of Representatives voted 124-14 in favour of letting people decide on November’s ballot through a referendum whether they want a constitutional change when it comes to sports betting or not.

HB1014, sponsored by Del. Frank Turner, D-Howard, would place a law to allow sports betting activity at casinos located in Maryland and horse racing tracks on November’s ballot through a voter referendum. Despite the House overwhelmingly voting in favour of the bill, it still needs the US Supreme Court to take action on the case that involves New Jersey, which seeks the repeal of PASPA in order to lift the federal ban on sports betting.

“Conventional wisdom is that the Supreme Court is going to overturn past congressional decision making,” House Ways and Means Committee Chair Anne Kaiser, D-Montgomery, a co-sponsor of the bill, said yesterday after the voting.

On the flip side, Del. Neil Parrott, D-Washington, expressed his opposition: “The bill is a little deceptive. Why does the NCAA care? They don’t to see people betting on those games with a lot of money involved. [There] is the potential that students participating in the athletic events could throw the game or throw certain parts of the game in order to help their friends or themselves make money based on the betting. It would certainly take a lot of the purity out of the sport.”

Sal Sanatra, Maryland Jockey Club president, believes that this is an opportunity for the state to get in line and get ready in the event the PASPA Act is declared unconstitutional. “It’s something that’s going to happen nationally,” he said.