The pushback for legalized sports betting in the U.S. arguably yet somewhat fittingly reached its peak in Vermont, the Green Mountain State.
Earlier this month, three members of Vermont's House of Representatives introduced a bill, H.133, that proposes to repeal the laws for the state lottery and sports wagering.
This would “ensure that any person offering a lottery or sports wagering is subject to the criminal provisions” of Vermont’s gambling and lottery laws, the bill says.
For example, H.133 would make it so anyone caught bookmaking – which at this point in Vermont would be DraftKings, Fanatics, and FanDuel – could be fined up to $250 or imprisoned for as long as six months, or both, for their first offense. Subsequent offenses could be met with fines of up to $2,000 and jail time of as much as five years.
Vermont only launched legal sports betting in January 2024. A year later, there’s a bill in the state legislature proposing the nuclear option: make sports betting illegal again.
“State-sanctioned gaming functions as a camouflaged form of regressive taxation,” Rep. Troy Headrick, one of H.133’s sponsors, said in a statement to Covers (which he’d first given to PlayUSA, the outlet that first reported on the bill). “The house always wins, and in this case, the state is the house – exploiting those who can least afford it under the guise of entertainment.”
H.133 was read for the first time on Feb. 4 and referred to the House's Committee on Government Operations and Military Affairs for further consideration. It has yet to budge from there, and there is no guarantee it goes any further.
Who's coming with me?
But the gauntlet was thrown down by the Vermont trio. Forget about hiking tax rates, restricting advertising, or imposing some other condition on the industry: why not just make it illegal again? If Vermont is successful, it would be the first state to illegalize since the U.S. Supreme Court paved the way for broader legalization of sports betting in 2018.
Any questions about whether Vermont lawmakers were alone in thinking about this sort of thing were quickly answered by Senate Bill 1033, which received its first reading last week in Maryland.
Introduced by Democratic Sen. Joanne Benson, S.B. 1033's purpose is "repealing online sports wagering," such as by removing references in state law to mobile sports betting.
The proposed repeal would take effect in Maryland on Jan. 1, 2026. It would allow in-person sports betting to continue at casinos and other brick-and-mortar facilities.
So now we have lawmakers in two states, at least, proposing to turn the clock back and make it illegal again to offer online sports betting. It usually takes three of something for a trend. But if you include the ongoing issues in passing sports betting-related legislation in states such as Minnesota and Mississippi, it’s trendy enough.
Lawmakers proposing to legalize sports betting don't even love it.
"If Minnesota is going to legalize this predatory industry, we must do so with safeguards that will minimize the harm," Minnesota Sen. John Marty said in a statement earlier this month.
You were warned
I think we’ve made it far enough now that I can say: I told you so. In December, one of my bold predictions for 2025 was that “a U.S. lawmaker will propose re-criminalizing sports betting.”
For that prediction, I cited a report from Deutsche Bank that noted: “In our time covering the gaming sector, we can't recall a period where the noise around a subsector, from both the media and political officials, is as considerable as it is at present around the [online sports betting] iCasino industries.”
Sports betting-related concerns were flying about addiction, advertising, and certain other industry practices. Why wouldn't some lawmaker take a shot at re-criminalizing sports betting, I wondered. Now that's come to pass. OK, victory lap over.
With all of the above said, the odds are stacked against another state legalizing sports betting this year. Any attempt to repeal and illegalize sports betting looks like a longshot as well.
One reason is shared between legalization and illegalization, namely, the difficulty of passing any gaming-related bill. It takes a lot of work to get legislation to authorize online sportsbooks across the finish line. It will take a lot of work to get a measure deauthorizing them to the governor’s desk as well.
Also, sports betting is popular. In 2020, 67.1% of Maryland voters approved sports betting in a referendum. And, in January, $618.8 million was wagered in Maryland, up 13.6% from a year earlier. While not everyone loves sports betting, a lot of people like it.
Come for the skiing, stay for the sports betting
Vermont, meanwhile, is a unique market for online sports betting in the U.S., as it has no in-person wagering options but a sizable chunk of wagering is still done by visitors.
As noted by the state’s liquor and lottery commissioner at a recent regulatory meeting, approximately 40% of sports betting activity is attributable to out-of-state users. People who travel to Vermont still want to get bets down. So why repeal something that may complement the local tourism industry?
Moreover, a budget bill that passed through Vermont's House in February includes more than $6 million in sports wagering-related proceeds that are expected to be transferred into the general revenue fund for the 2025 fiscal year. Sports betting-related revenue is being baked into the state’s finances, another income stream upon which government services and programs rely.
“I won’t pretend to know how the Governor thinks, but given his refusal to consider progressive tax reforms and his reliance on austerity measures that cut deepest into the lives of the most vulnerable, I doubt he’d be eager to give up the revenue stream that state-sanctioned gaming provides,” Headrick told Covers.
In Vermont, where a trio of lawmakers is proposing to take the unprecedented step of re-criminalizing sports betting, approximately 40% of wagering activity is attributable to out-of-state users, according to the commissioner of liquor and lottery: pic.twitter.com/Q4ax8tSJ7A
— Geoff Zochodne (@GeoffZochodne) February 18, 2025
So making online sports betting illegal again will be a tough task. But the fact it’s being proposed at all says a lot, suggesting some lawmakers have tired of the industry (or didn't like it in the first place) and would rather try to abolish it than regulate it. Maryland and Vermont may not be the last.
“I would hope that just-minded legislators in other states take a hard look at how these predatory contracts extract wealth from their most vulnerable residents,” Vermont’s Headrick told Covers. “The losses are predictable and the harm is measurable. No state should rely on a funding mechanism that depends on its people losing.”
