Last week, 18 out of Iowa’s 19 land casinos were awarded licenses by the state’s Racing and Gaming Commission to offer sports betting. The race is now on to get sports betting services ready for the August 15th launch date.
Administrator for the Commission, Brian Ohorilko, said that it was expected that most casinos would be ready to take bets on the big day.
“I think the majority of casinos in Iowa will have their brick-and-mortar operations ready to roll on Aug. 15,” he said. “It may not be expansive sports betting. For some, it may be a situation where they have kiosks and a few tellers, but it looks like many of them are planning on having something ready on that first day.”
Permission to offer sports betting was fast-tracked by authorities ahead of the start of official sports seasons.
While mobile sports betting is also allowed under Iowa’s new laws, it is expected that this industry will take a little longer to go live in its entirety. However, the state said that it is already examining applications by online partners, needed by the local casinos to run their mobile sportsbooks. If between now and August 15th, it is found that these potential partners satisfy background checks, they will be granted a conditional mobile sports betting license.
Ohorilko said that many of the online partners are not companies that authorities in Iowa are familiar with. He added that if a company hasn’t yet been licensed in the United States and is slow to provide background information, it is reasonable to assume that the company will not be granted an operating license immediately.
The new rules approved last week also include daily fantasy sports (DFS), with three big fish – FanDuel, DraftKings and Yahoo! Sports having applied for DFS licenses.
Casinos are now working around the clock to get their establishments ready for the August 15th launch date. They will be sent individual letters with authorization from the IRGC allowing them to begin sports betting.
