For so long, the Idaho sports betting debate has been all about what's not happening.
The state is not having extensive discussion on the subject. Officials have not shown any inclination of seriously embracing a previous or future legal gambling proposal. And above all, the state is not clearly outlining why the topic jostles between divisive and completely irrelevant.
So far, we can only guess what’s holding up any material progress. And reading between the lines can be tough. Once more, the subject of sports betting in Idaho receives very little to no public attention or focus from key decision-makers. It is, for now, more of an ancillary topic or consideration. And even that may be a generous classification.
Most people, both inside and outside the industry, just ascribe the absence of Idaho sports betting to conservative politics. States that tilt heavily toward republican ideals and have a base of devout religious supporters have historically struggled to hash out legal sports gambling initiatives. It has happened successfully, to be sure. But Idaho is far from an exception when looking at the political and religious makeup of their state legislature and population.
Really, though, this may be a convenient form of logic. The political leanings of Idaho certainly matter in the gambling discourse. But recent data from the region suggests the industry’s shift to online sports betting may be more of an impediment to Idaho’s own policies and preferences than anything else.
Online Sports Betting is Exploding Throughout the Mountain West Region
The legalization of online sports betting is spreading throughout the Mountain West Region of the United States. In total, there are 14 states that make up this sector of the country: Idaho, Colorado, South Dakota, Nevada, Kansas, Montana, Utah, Oregon, New Mexico, Nebraska, Wyoming, Arizona, Texas and North Dakota. The debut of sports betting in Kansas now means that more than half of the states within the Mountain West Region offer some form of sports gambling. At present, only seven states in the entire USA do not have a pending piece of sports betting legislature. Two of them hail from this group: Utah and Idaho.
While it would again be easy to chalk this up to political and religious ideals, places like Kansas and South Dakota aren’t exactly known for their liberal constructs. Instead, the dearth of sports betting debate in Idaho and Utah seemingly has more to do with the limited revenue that can be generated from strictly on-site gambling. Consider this excerpt from NPR’s Kaleb Roedel:
“In 2018, the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act, which was a federal ban on sports betting. Since then, Americans have wagered more than $220 billion on sports, according to an analysis by the American Gaming Association…People in Nevada have bet nearly $32 billion during that span, which ranks second only to New Jersey ($37.5 billion), according to Legal Sports Report. The only other Mountain West state in the top 10 is seventh-ranked Colorado at $11.7 billion. In Wyoming, roughly $238 million has been wagered on sports, followed by Montana at $139 million. New Mexico is one of five states in the U.S. that doesn’t make total wager amounts publicly available.
“Nationwide, the sports betting industry has generated more than $18 billion in revenue for sportsbooks and $3 billion in state and local taxes. Mike Lawton, the Nevada Gaming Control Board’s senior economic analyst, said the growth of the industry is being driven by a number of factors. ‘A key component of sports wagering in Nevada and across the country is the ability to wager on your phone,’ said Lawton, adding that sports betting has also been embraced by TV networks and advertisers. ‘You have ESPN mentioning point spreads and bad beats on their primetime shows.’”
Is it a coincidence that all the states in the Mountain West Region generating millions in revenue also happen to allow online sportsbooks in the United States to operate within their markets? Not at all. More than three-quarters of all bets placed in the USA last year were processed through an online operator. And states that allow mobile wagering also tend to have the higher total revenue. If maximizing local earning potential is the goal, the direction of this industry has made one thing clear: States need to consider the legalization of online sports betting.
Idaho Doesn’t Seem Ready to Embrace the Online Sports Betting Aspect of the Business
Insofar as Idaho is even interested in sports betting, they definitely don’t seem committed to pushing the mobile wagering options. Most of the legal gambling talks have focused on retail sports betting.
To be absolutely certain, this isn’t unique. Plenty of states have exclusively approved on-site sports gambling. This includes North Dakota, another member of the Mountain West Region. Not surprisingly, while North Dakota hasn’t yet made their figures public, they’re projected to have one of the smallest annual revenue streams per capita.
There is also a reason other states with only retail sports betting have been reluctant to release their revenue figures. This includes Wisconsin, which legalized on-site sports betting at a number of tribal casinos. Officials no doubt know that the calls to green light online sports betting will swell tenfold if the numbers aren’t that impressive.
Even certain state officials have acknowledged that Idaho sports betting would not be a huge profit driver. They rank 38th in state population, the thinking goes; they won’t generate enough foot traffic at retail locations to make a dent in their yearly tax earnings.
That logic must be expanded to consider the possibilities with online sports betting. For now, Idaho seems reluctant to make gambling so accessible while also eating into the market share of their casinos. That’s honestly fine. It just means that until their vision changes, Idaho sports betting will remain little more than an unreachable fantasy.
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