00:00Sam, we hit on Alaska. Now let's hit on Hawaii, two states that do not have legalized sports betting, but
00:05arguably the smallest in the country and obviously in different places in the country as well. But very passionate fans
00:13of sports, maybe more so in Hawaii, honestly, than in Alaska because of all the West Coast sports that are
00:18going on out there, major college out there as well. Is there a chance that the island gets sports betting
00:25legalized this year?
00:27Yeah, I think Hawaii, I would add, is interesting in this conversation as well because I think the Hawaii teams
00:33always play late on the college sports slate. So a lot of times people who are up betting on certain
00:38sports are betting on Hawaiian teams and the state isn't really seeing any of that money. But this year, will
00:44it be legalized? I would say probably not. There is a bill being considered. It was actually just passed out
00:50of committee, but with a very interesting amendment.
00:52The amendment clarified the effective date of sports betting in Hawaii would be the year 3000, which popular Jonas Brothers
01:00song, but also used as kind of a measure in this case to delay things out and push things out
01:06for an indefinite amount of time. It's probably the maximum they could do in the bill.
01:10And the reason lawmakers say they're doing that is because they want to continue the conversation of sports betting. They
01:15want it to be something that's talked about in the legislature. They want to get to a place where they're
01:19figuring out how to regulate it. But they're also very wary of sending dollars out of state. They have been
01:24for a long time introducing a Fandul DraftKings into the state.
01:28They're wary that, you know, getting more people to bet in the state could create problems here. And then the
01:32companies that benefit from that are out of state. Additionally, Hawaii has no gaming at all, really. They're right in
01:39line with Utah. So this would be a big change.
01:41They wouldn't be going from, you know, a state that regulates gaming to a state with sports betting. They'd have
01:46to create a whole commission to do this kind of thing. They don't have much experience with it.
01:49So this year, will it get legalized? Probably not. When you talk about the amendment that pushes it out to
01:543000. But it does mean the conversation will continue. The governor is on board if responsible gaming protections get added
02:00in there. So I wouldn't say completely no, but it's not looking great. Maybe someday for Hawaii.
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