U.S. Rep. Frank Pallone Jr said on Friday that his House Energy and Commerce Committee would be conducting an intense review of federal laws that govern sports betting and other types of gambling in the United States, with a view to introducing legislation to replace what he called the current “obsolete” laws.
In a statement, Pallone said that the laws require an entire review of current federal laws to see how they are able to work together and create a fairer playing field for all types of gambling, including online gambling, sports betting and daily fantasy sports.
“At the same time, we must ensure the laws are actually creating an environment of integrity and accountability, and include strong consumer protections,” said Pallone. “I plan to continue discussions with the key stakeholders and then will introduce comprehensive legislation to finally update these outdated laws.”
Attempts will be made to harmonize the three federal laws that currently cover sports betting, namely the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act of 1992 (PASPA), the Federal Wire Act of 1961 and the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act of 2006 (UIGEA).
For quite some time now, there has been a need to clarify once and for all what constitutes legal sports betting – and what does not – from a federal stand. What really highlighted this need was the recent wave of individual states ruling on the legality (or illegality) of Daily Fantasy Sports. Questions are being raised why DFS is considered legal while sports betting is not, and the entire argument is not being helped by sporting bodies such as the National Hockey League insisting that DFS does not constitute gambling. Clearly order has to be made in Congress over this question.
In addition, intense lobbying by New Jersey to have its own sports betting laws changed, making it legal to bet on sports in this state and leave the PASPA legislation to which it is tied, has also brought the spotlight on the rights of individual states to determine their own laws and whether the federal government wants to develop this type of scenario.
Groups with clout, such as the American Gaming Association, have already said that their number one priority in 2017 will be to have PASPA overturned. The group’s chairman and chief executive officer, Geoff Freeman told Yahoo! Sports that the next US president would have the issue of legalizing sports betting “on their desk”.
