Mitt Romney’s Gambling Bill

Mitt Romney and Chuck Schumer
Working Together for Online Gambling.

So What Does Mitt Romney’s Gambling Bill Mean For Utah?

In the United States in 2020, gambling is becoming more accepted. For years it’s been known that American sports fans conduct a lot of illegal (or at least questionable) wagering, and in many states, people have long enjoyed the betting-adjacent activity of daily fantasy sports. Now, however, more straightforward betting practices are becoming part of mainstream American entertainment.

If you pay close attention, you can actually see this reflected in pop culture and professional sports. For example, last year we saw the diamond district underworld drama “Uncut Gems” enter various film award conversations. It was a film largely about sports betting, and while it showed a darker side of the business, it undoubtedly resonated with the millions of Americans either actively betting or interested in doing so. One wonders if the film would have come out even five years ago when gambling was less accepted in the U.S.

Somewhat similarly, millions of people recently watched a charity golf event featuring Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson, Peyton Manning, and Tom Brady. The four sports stars raised $20 million for pandemic relief efforts — but they did so largely through live betting! As they played through 18 holes, the athletes fielded various challenges and public bets from other sports stars and celebrities. It was all fairly innocent (not to mention charitable), but again, one wonders if it would have been televised five years ago. Gambling, simply put, isn’t as taboo a subject as it once was.

That brings us to relatively recent developments concerning Utah Senator Mitt Romney. For a few years now as gambling has begun to spread slowly in parts of the U.S., the assumption has been that Utah would be among the last states to take the leap. Strong ties to the Mormon community would seem to make the state an unlikely ally for casino and sportsbook businesses, and indeed there has been little to no progress on a statewide gambling initiative. Romney, however — the state’s most prominent politician and a member of the Mormon community himself — is working on federal betting legislation alongside Senator Chuck Schumer.

This legislation is coming at a time when it’s no longer just possible but rather quite clear that betting and casino activity is going to spread across the country. Really, it was the growth of a gambling platform market in Pennsylvania that made this clear. New Jersey was the first new state to introduce both online casinos and sportsbooks when federal legislation changed to allow states to do so in 2018. That had been predicted, given that New Jersey had been at the core of the preceding legal battle. The emergence of casino and sportsbook sites in Pennsylvania, though, was a clearer sign. It showed that even outside of New Jersey, where a gambling culture had already been somewhat entrenched; state legislators were intrigued by gambling businesses. Pennsylvania has seen a spattering of online and mobile gambling options take off, such that we now know that sportsbooks and casinos alike can thrive in what are effectively whole new environments in the U.S.

This proof of concept amounts to a clear incentive for more states to help establish and regulate gambling platforms. A handful more have already done just that, and more are going to follow at a steady pace. Mainstream online sports betting (and possibly casino play) has become somewhat inevitable, and it’s this that seems to be behind the Romney-Schumer legislation.

Specifically, this legislation is thought of as a continuation of an effort that was previously headed up by Romney’s predecessor, Senator Orrin Hatch. Its primary purpose is to head off the state-by-state expansion of sports betting by establishing federal guidelines for the practice. The main detail appears to be that sports betting sites would be required to purchase their data from “official league sites,” so as to guarantee a degree of integrity. However, it’s also meant to curb illegal betting practices and ensure that involved companies are paying their share of taxes. Crucially, the legislation also seems to have the backing of the NCAA, in that it would work to prohibit wagering on college athletics.

What the Romney-Schumer legislation would mean for Utah, however, remains uncertain. To make it perfectly clear, the proposed bill would not establish betting practices nationwide, so much as set federal guidelines in place for state-by-state legalization.

One could look at Senator Romney’s participation in one of two ways. On the one hand, he could simply be making an effort to stop what he might view as uncontrolled gambling expansion in the U.S., out of a sense of duty to his conservative principles. On the other hand, his work on this issue could be viewed as a surprising prelude to acceptable gambling legislation in Utah.

Viewpoints and perspectives expressed throughout The Independent are those of the individual contributors. They do not necessarily reflect those held by the staff of The Independent or our advertising sponsors. Your comments, rebuttals, and contributions are welcome in accordance with our Terms of Service. Please be respectful and abide by our Community Rules. If you have privacy concerns you can view our Privacy Policy here. Thank you! 

Click here to submit an article, guest opinion piece, or a Letter to the Editor