00:00the state of maryland which just seems to be ahead of by the way a lot of these other states
00:03with prediction markets and everything else have declared uh that there's got to be some
00:08sort of deadline here i guess sam as to figuring out whether or not the uh sweepstakes casinos
00:13will continue or not i mean i guess what goes into this specifically sam like how do they make
00:18these decisions because i feel like maryland is one of those states that as soon as they feel like
00:23something's going a little bit sideways you try to get out in front of it and maybe even get rid
00:27of it is this the case here too yeah well i wish i knew what made lawmakers and regulators good
00:34at
00:34their jobs in some states and not so good in other states i think when you talk about maryland you
00:38also
00:39have to remember that this is a state that once they legalized sports betting it took like almost
00:43three years for them to actually go online with it so they haven't always been super quick and super
00:48fast uh with gaming changes and you know making changes in the state that kind of help out people
00:54but uh they are taking as you mentioned craig a really aggressive stance against what they see
00:59as illegal forms of gaming which have been operating under these kind of regulatory loopholes
01:03mentioned prediction markets is one of them they're suing to stop those and there's also these two bills
01:08that are circulating in the state right now which would target sweepstakes casinos and sweepstakes
01:12sports books these are platforms that operate just like casinos just like sports books but
01:18because they allow you to write in and get some sort of free play credit that is kind of the
01:23loophole
01:23which allows them to not pay gaming taxes to not follow the state laws so it is kind of percolating
01:29in the state they've really been aggressive around enforcement and you know if we legalize sports betting
01:34we might as well go out and try to crack down on the other forms of sports betting going on
01:40which are
01:40illegal and not following the law so you know this is a state that spent a lot of money building
01:44out
01:44its regulated model uh consumer protections collecting tax revenue issuing licenses to people
01:51in the state it's it's or operators rather it's handed down a lot of fees over the past couple of
01:55years so um you know it's good to see lawmakers kind of come together and try to get rid of
02:00you know
02:00the black market industry or the illicit industry but i would say maryland has a pretty good chance
02:05of passing this bill and just having another kind of um safeguard against these forms of legal gambling
02:10in the state and we'll see how the prediction market stuff all ends up i'm sure that's a topic
02:14for another day
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