Montana delays sports betting

Officials from the state said that sports betting won’t be offered in Montana at least until the end of the year.

US.- While some states are already benefitting from sports betting operations, others are still discussing possible regulations. Montana is one of those states, as officials said on Tuesday that sports betting won’t happen until the end of the year or after that.

Angela Wong, director of the Montana Lottery, which will be in charge of the sports betting operators, talked yesterday to an interim legislative committee and said that the timing depends on when the new regulations are done. She said that they’re drafting the regulations but that they have to go through a public comment period before they’re finally set.

Montana became earlier this year the seventh state in the US to legalise sports betting after the US Supreme Court lifted the federal ban in May 2018. Representative Ryan Lynch, the sponsor of the bill, said that the goal was to kick off sports betting by the launch of the NFL season on Thursday.

However, Wong said that it’s hard to implement those rules and that lottery officials never said that they would be ready by the NFL kick-off.

The legalisation of sports betting

Back in May, the state’s governor signed the bill into law, opening Montana to sports betting. The new regulations give the state lottery the power to oversee the segment. It will run through kiosks and mobile applications.

“It’s a good day for Montana to be able to see sports betting in the marketplace. I think Montanans will enjoy the new aspect of watching sports for entertainment as well as betting on it,” said Lynch when the segment was legalised.