Unexpected Progress: Hawaii's Sports Betting Evolution
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SportsTranscript
00:00 (upbeat music)
00:03 - Could Hawaii get sports betting before California, Pat?
00:05 I mean, I never would have thought
00:07 we would have this conversation,
00:08 but they're making some progress here.
00:11 Now again, I know it's probably gonna get shut down
00:14 and get struck down.
00:15 A year from now, there'll be no discussion,
00:16 but hey, like we don't even hear any discussion
00:18 about California and here Hawaii is,
00:21 getting toward at least talking about legislating.
00:24 - Hawaii is one of those interesting states.
00:26 With Utah, it's one of two that has zero forms of gaming.
00:30 And that puts it on the back foot
00:34 to start in the first place.
00:36 They do talk about it every year.
00:38 There's always at least one bill introduced,
00:40 whether it's, this year there's a bill
00:43 to create one casino resort in Oahu.
00:47 And then there's another bill
00:48 to legalize online sports betting.
00:50 There's a couple other bills
00:51 that are floating around as well,
00:53 but those two bills got through a committee.
00:56 And that's the first time since 2019
00:59 that a bill to legalize any form of gaming
01:02 has made it through a committee in Hawaii.
01:04 And so that's a big step.
01:06 And who knows where it goes at this point?
01:09 I think there's still lots, as with Alabama,
01:12 where again, there's a very limited amount of gaming.
01:15 It's an uphill battle.
01:16 There's no doubt about it.
01:18 Unlike some of these Southeastern states
01:20 that we're watching very closely this year,
01:23 where there's a Republican majority,
01:25 there's a Democratic majority in Hawaii,
01:26 and it's a huge majority.
01:28 And as we've talked about all the time with these states
01:30 is it's a very bipartisan issue
01:32 that you need support from both sides,
01:35 because there's people on both sides who don't like it
01:37 and people on both sides who do like it.
01:38 And in Hawaii, it's so one-sided.
01:41 You get a lot of Democrats,
01:43 in the committee we were hearing,
01:44 they're just worried about the effects of the,
01:46 unprotected, the poor people in the state
01:53 and the ways that this might prey on them.
01:56 And they're worried about that.
01:58 And that's always won out in the past couple of years.
02:01 And it's even had sponsors say,
02:03 "You know what?
02:04 "This is a bad idea, let's not move forward."
02:06 But this year, it's moving forward a little bit.
02:09 So Hawaii, yeah, it's gonna be interesting.
02:11 Huge uphill battle.
02:12 I can't tell you if they'll have it
02:15 before California or not.
02:16 That's a whole 'nother ball game
02:18 that'll take a few hours to dissect probably.
02:20 But it's moving, that's one thing.
02:25 That's one thing to take home.
02:27 (upbeat music)
02:29 [Music]