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Sports bets would move out of the underground and into the bright lights of Iowa casinos under a longshot bill being considered by the Iowa Senate.
If the legislative gamble paid off, next year's Superbowl fans could plunk down $500 on which team will win the coin toss or which quarterback will throw more touchdown passes.
Betting on professional sports would become legal at the state's 17 casinos under the proposal.
The odds are long on legalized sports betting, though — even if Iowa passes a law.
That's because Congress would need to lift its 1992 ban on sports betting. Only Delaware, Nevada, Oregon and Montana can offer sports betting because their laws were in place before the federal ban.
Sports wagering not only would boost revenue for Iowa casinos — which have seen revenue declines from the recession — but also could be taxed, benefiting state coffers.
Iowa lawmakers are looking at ways to fill a projected $400 million hole in the state budget.
Estimates for how much such betting could bring the state were not available. But in Nevada, an estimated $90 million will be wagered on this Sunday's Super Bowl alone — a sliver of the sports wagering market when compared with online betting and other underground forms.
The betting bill was approved unanimously Wednesday by an Iowa Senate subcommittee and was OK'd by the full Senate State Government Committee.
“We've heard about sports betting since I was a pup,” said 80-year-old Senate President Jack Kibbie, R-Emmetsburg. “It's already legal in many foreign countries. I'm just saying why not Iowa?”
Critics said they were leery of expanding gambling, considering the other options available.
“We've got ample gambling in this state,” said Sen. James Seymour, R-Woodbine. “I'm opposed to expanded gambling.”
Seymour, who voted for the plan at the subcomittee level, said he might oppose it later.
Ameristar Casino in Council Bluffs would like to offer sports betting, said Jane Bell, the casino's director of government relations.
“We would definitely be interested in that, as any gaming company in the state would be,” Bell said.
Bell added: “It would add another dimension — a little excitement and a little buzz.”
She acknowledged, however, that sports wagering might not be high on Congress's list of priorities.
The Iowa bill would not allow betting on college sports.
Tom Osborne, as Husker coach, Nebraska congressman and NU athletic director, has teamed with the NCAA to fight sports books.
But those efforts targeted betting on collegiate and amateur sports — not professional sports.
The Iowa effort would meet much stiffer opposition if it included betting on collegiate sports, although Osborne and the NCAA failed to win congressional approval to ban all wagering on amateur sports.
Even if the proposal cleared all the hurdles, your NCAA basketball brackets would have to be handled in the office, online or in Vegas.
Wes Ehrecke, president of the Iowa Gaming Association, said legalizing pro sports betting would allow the state to regulate such wagering. The casinos would ensure that minors are not making such bets, he said.
The association is staying neutral on the bill, Ehrecke said, because some of its members are waiting to see what happens with the full Legislature and with the federal ban.
“It's got a ways to go before it gets to the governor's desk at the statehouse,” Ehrecke said.
This report includes material from The Associated Press.
Contact the writer:
444-1149, tom.shaw@owh.com
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