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Testimony at a U.S. Senate committee hearing on sports betting on Tuesday (December 17) will include lobbying for a variety of potential federal reforms of the industry.
The Senate Judiciary Committee is set to hold a hearing titled “America’s High-Stakes Bet on Legalized Sports Gambling”.
The hearing will be the first congressional hearing on the topic of sports betting since a September 2018 hearing by a House Judiciary subcommittee.
The scheduled witness list, released Monday, indicates a focus from the committee on harassment of athletes and problem gambling reforms.
National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) president Charlie Baker and Johnson Bademosi, a former NFL player representing the NFL Players Association (NFLPA), are set to testify at the hearing from the sports world, while testimony from the problem gambling space will come from Keith Whyte, executive director of the National Council on Problem Gambling, and Harry Levant, director of gambling policy at the Public Health Advocacy Institute at Northeastern University in Boston.
David Rebuck, the former director of the New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement, is also scheduled to give testimony at the hearing.
Baker and Bademosi’s submitted written testimony called for the federal government to make reforms in the area of player harassment.
“The NCAA believes the federal government can support positive change in the sports-betting space by developing a clear federal definition of sports-betting-related harassment, empowering state regulators to prohibit betting by those who engage in harassment and encouraging states to use and share prohibited bettor lists, as well as make data available to sports leagues and associations when integrity issues arise,” states the written testimony of Baker, who signed a 2022 sports-betting bill into law while Governor of Massachusetts.
Bademosi’s testimony asks the government to heed the call of professional players' unions who have recommended prohibiting "negative" bets, such as injuries, penalties and player discipline. The NFLPA representative also calls for prohibiting the use of player biometric data for gambling purposes, and “ensuring full due process rights in sports betting conduct investigations by notifying the player and their union of a potential violation”.
Levant and Whyte’s testimony calls on Congress to pass separate pieces of federal legislation that were introduced in Congress this year.
Levant is a supporter of the SAFE Bet Act, as introduced by Senator Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut and Representative Paul Tonko of New York in September. The bill would impose significant regulatory reforms on the sports-betting industry, including mandatory affordability checks and prohibiting television advertising during most hours of the day, as well as during televised sporting events.
“The SAFE Bet Act, and other measures available to Congress, will bring a comprehensive public health approach to federal regulation of the online gambling industry,” Levant wrote. “In so doing, Congress will save lives and protect families while also permitting the online sports gambling industry to flourish as a for-profit form of entertainment.”
Whyte’s testimony asks Congress to pass a separate bill introduced by Blumenthal, the Gambling Addiction Recovery, Investment and Treatment (GRIT) Act, which would set aside 50 percent of federal excise tax revenues for gambling addiction and research for ten years.
“This rapid expansion and its accompanying harm demands a public health response based on prevention, treatment, and research partnerships amongst all stakeholders and everyone who profits from legalized gambling,” Whyte wrote.
“We believe this practical and commonsense legislation is the single most important action Congress can take to address the negative impacts of expanded sports betting and legalized gambling in general.”
Rebuck’s testimony will strike a somewhat different tone, urging Congress and federal authorities to refrain from stepping into the fray when it comes to sports-betting reforms, other than to take enforcement action against offshore operators that may be outside the reach of state regulators.
“I urge this Committee to respect the successes that states have achieved in regulating sports betting and allow this progress to continue unimpeded by federal overreach,” Rebuck wrote. “States are uniquely positioned to understand the needs of their residents, enforce strong consumer protections, and ensure that the benefits of legalization flow back into their communities.
“A federal approach risks undermining these efforts and creating inefficiencies that could stifle innovation and compromise the very protections we seek to enhance.”
The Judiciary Committee includes several members who have voiced concerns in recent months regarding sports betting, one of which is Blumenthal himself.
Other members include senators Peter Welch of Vermont and Mike Lee of Utah, who co-authored a letter earlier this month to the Federal Trade Commission calling on the federal regulator to investigate alleged anti-competitive behavior by FanDuel and DraftKings that involved allegations of the companies pressuring sports leagues, marketing partners and suppliers not to do business with competing operators.
Tennessee Senator Marsha Blackburn, also a judiciary committee member, co-authored a letter with Nevada Senator Catherine Cortez-Masto to the Department of Justice this month expressing their concern over “the growing risk of match-fixing” in the U.S., including the potential corruption of collegiate athletes.
Meanwhile, Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina is well known to the gambling industry for his past efforts to establish a blanket national ban on all forms of online gambling through amendments to the federal Wire Act.
The hearing is scheduled to take place at 10am EST Tuesday and can be streamed online at congress.gov.
