The American Gaming Association is the latest entity to express its strongest opposition to attempts to introduce a federal bill governing sports betting in the United States. The Sports Wagering Integrity Act of 2018 was proposed recently by US Senator Charles Schumer (D-NY) and Senator Orrin Hatch (R-UT). This bi-partisan effort aims to bring federal oversight to the US sports betting industry and only allow the use of data that is cleared through a central platform.
In a statement issued by the AGA, the group blasted the senators’ attempts.
“This bill is the epitome of a solution in search of a problem, representing an unprecedented and inappropriate expansion of federal involvement in the gaming industry, which is currently one of the most strictly regulated in the country,” wrote Sara Slane, the vice president of public affairs for the AGA in the recently released statement.
The AGA pointed that that hundreds of millions of dollars are spent each year to ensure the integrity of commercial and tribal casinos across the United States through state regulators, which, it said, “have decades of experience effectively overseeing gaming operations within their jurisdictions.”
The AGA said that the federal regulation of sports betting in the US was non-negotiable from the association’s perspective. However, the statement said that it appreciated the senators’ recognition that more needs to be done to curb illegal sports betting operations in the country.
