Washington state is now the 21st state to legalize sports betting in the US. Just this Wednesday, Governor Jay Inslee signed a bill that allows sports wagering in Native American tribal casinos. It may be a little too late, since the coronavirus has practically paused the whole sports industry, along with pay per head sportsbooks. But to have a Washington state sports betting policy early in this year is still not too bad.
But those who are studying how to be a bookie from home know how important it is to be ready for the sports world to get back up on its feet. Once college and professional sports leagues will resume, sportsbooks will be full of people aching to resume their sports wagering activities.
Washington State Sports Betting
Washington state is, surprisingly, also the first state to legalize sports betting in 2020. Despite the poor timing and coincidence with the whole sports world on hold, the potential of the action when it resumes is still big. And this could be the perfect tool that Native American tribal casinos can use to boost their local industry.
The bill itself is HB 2638, and passed with bipartisan support from both the House and the Senate. Which of course, speeded things up. However, a lot of experts are lamenting the absence of online sports betting. The bill only allows sports wagering within the casinos. Only 8 of those are within 50 miles of the Seattle metro area. This means that bettors will have to travel pretty far to place their wagers. Come winter time, this will be more of a problem than it already is.
A lot of bookie pay per head reviews show us how large the online sports betting market is. In fact, other states who embraced online wagering early on, like New Jersey, Nevada, and Pennsylvania are already have online wagers take up a large part of the sports betting handle. New Jersey alone has 85% of its wagers done online. The lack of an online betting platform for Washington residents will be a big issue later on. Hopefully, legislators will realize this and reconsider with a new bill.
