Vermont senators are beginning to dig deeper into the financial aspects of a bill that would bring online sports betting sites to their state.
The Vermont Senate’s finance committee met Tuesday and considered House Bill 127, which would authorize legal sports betting in the state through mobile apps and sites.
Committee members took no action on the proposal and will meet again on Wednesday to consider the legislation of Vermont sports betting.
Tuesday was spent going over the current version of H.127, with a few senators asking questions and supplying their thoughts about the situation. Sen. Dick McCormack, for example, had some words of warning in connection with the plan to legalize sports betting.
“It does seem with sin taxes that the argument is always ‘it's happening anyway, so might as well regulate it and tax it,’” McCormack said during Tuesday’s meeting. “And then at a certain point, we as a state get addicted to whatever it is. We're indulging, regulating, and taxing.”
We'll see you tomorrow
Again, the finance committee took no action on H.127 on Tuesday and will reconvene to consider the legislation on Wednesday.
In the meantime, though, Vermont is still the only state in New England that has not legalized sports betting. H.127 was introduced in late January to try to change that fact, and the bill was passed by the House in March.
It received its first reading in the Senate on March 29 and went to the chamber's economic development committee, which favorably reported the legislation last week with proposed amendments. H.127 was then referred to the Senate’s finance committee.
The legislation would put legal sports betting under the watch of the Vermont Department of Liquor and Lottery, which would use a competitive bidding process to select two to six operators of mobile sportsbooks to take wagers in the state. Bookmakers would have to turn over a share of the revenue from sports betting, and that cut could not be less than 20% of adjusted receipts.
Bettors will have to be 21 or older and physically located in the state to wager. Sportsbooks will also be able to offer a wide variety of betting markets with a few exceptions, such as a ban on taking action on Vermont colleges unless they are playing in a tournament like March Madness. Credit cards will not be allowed to deposit or make bets.
