Bovada Faces State Crackdowns, Restricts U.S. Operations

Watch Bovada Faces State Crackdowns, Restricts U.S. Operations - SportsGrid on Dailymotion

Transcript

00:00But, Jim, welcome back to the show.

00:04It is great to catch up with you, and I know we're going to dive in here.

00:07You know, I kind of, I got to be honest, I kind of miscalculated this story a little

00:11bit.

00:12I honestly thought that Bovada, the offshore sports betting company who has been around

00:17for a really long period of time, way before sports betting was legal, you know, I thought

00:21that these threats that these different states were making to them to shut down operations

00:26in legal states.

00:28I thought they wouldn't take it seriously and just proceed as usual, because they've

00:32sort of proceeded under their own auspices for many, many years.

00:36But now they're restricted in 14 different states, and quite frankly, Jim, I'm a little

00:41surprised.

00:42I was wrong.

00:43I thought they would just keep rolling and not listen to anyone.

00:45Yeah, certainly, Craig.

00:47And I think what we've seen over the last handful of months, you know, really going

00:51back to the early parts of this year, where a bunch of states had been sending these cease

00:59and desist letters to Bovada.

01:01It does seem, though, at least this year, that they are sort of heeding that warning

01:06and restricting access in those states where they do receive that cease and desist letter.

01:12So what we saw over the last couple of weeks and months, Kansas, Louisiana, and Pennsylvania

01:20being added to that list of restricted U.S. sports betting markets for Bovada, Kansas,

01:27Louisiana, and Pennsylvania, all sending their own separate cease and desist letters within

01:32the last couple of months.

01:33You know, Kansas, I believe, sent theirs in July, and Louisiana and Pennsylvania sent

01:40theirs last month in August.

01:43We've seen, like I said off the top, a handful of states take this action so far this year.

01:49Michigan, Connecticut, Colorado, and Ohio did the same, and all of those states as well

01:56included in those 14 restricted markets.

02:00Massachusetts, interestingly enough, they do have one of the most public and outspoken

02:07band of sports betting regulators.

02:10They like to do a lot of public-facing things in terms of meetings and rulemaking and whatnot.

02:17I spoke to some people over there the other day, and they told me that they'll have an

02:21update on their actions against Bovada coming up at a committee meeting, a gaming commission

02:30meeting coming up in the next several weeks, though they have not yet sent a cease and

02:35desist letter to Bovada or any illegal offshore bookmaker for that matter.

02:42Of course, Craig, like we all know, the offshore sportsbooks, very limited, if any, customer

02:51protections, unregulated, untaxed, in direct contrast to the legal betting markets, the

03:00legal sportsbooks that are heavily regulated in the U.S., of course, with varying regulations

03:08across different states.

03:09Now 14 restricted markets for Bovada in the U.S.