On May 14, the Supreme Court of the United States declared sports betting to be legitimate. However, fans of these profitable thrills will be able to freely enjoy them after a year in most of the states. According to researcher Chris Grove, the transition process will have several stages.
Legislative Stages of Legalizing Sports Betting
The stage one involves states, in which certain laws are active and all they needed was the positive outcome of the Supreme Court’s ruling – West Virginia, Delaware, Mississippi and New Jersey. The second stage is connected to California, Michigan, Illinois and New York, that are awaiting settlement on their own sports-betting bills. The third stage is affiliated with the largest number of states, which will need to wait until 2019 because they are either out of session or nearly out of one and so they are unable to make any decisions right away. The number of states, which are planning on making sports betting legal is approximately 20 and experts are predicting that it will increase in future years simply because it is only natural that neighboring states influence each other.
The Response of the States: Passive and Active, Positive and Negative
Overall, the responses to the Supreme Court Ruling were quite different across the country. States that haven’t responded to the Monday decision, or have replied in a negative way and continue to prohibit sports betting as well as other forms of gambling are: Alabama, Alaska, Maine, Nebraska, New Mexico, Texas, Utah, Minnesota, Vermont and Virginia.
There are many states, which have not denied the possibility of making sports betting legal but at the same time have displayed little to no interest or have not acted in a progressive way towards the complete legalization of sports gambling and are unlikely to do so in the near future - Arizona, Arkansas, Colorado, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, Massachusetts, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, South Carolina and Wyoming.
That being said, a solid number of states will actively respond to this new May 14 court ruling and will be investigating the matter, ready to embrace the advantages of legalizing the industry, including California, Connecticut, Florida, Hawaii, Iowa, Maryland, Mississippi, Missouri, New Jersey, Tennessee and Washington. some of these states are already planning to put together bills, which potentially could become active by the start of 2019.
Of course, there are many states, which were prepared for the court ruling through a special bill or which have already made sports betting legal within their borders in one way or another: Delaware, Illinois, Kansas, Michigan, Montana, Nevada, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, West Virginia and Wisconsin.
The May 14 decision was a crucial step for the legitimization of sports betting in the United States and even though there is still quite a lot of work to be done, passionate gamblers in many states have a lot to look forward to.
