Arizona MLB Plan Would Come Without State Sports Bettors

Reports that all 30 Major League Baseball may begin play in Arizona as early as next month tantalized sports fans. U.S. sports bettors are excited for the first domestic competition in weeks.

But even if the long-shot idea to quarantine an entire professional sports league in one location does come to fruition, it won’t mean much for legal bettors near baseball’s new epicenter.

Online and retail sports betting is illegal in Arizona. Though the state has considered sports betting bills for several years, there will not be legal betting for Arizonians no matter where, or when, the 2020 MLB season begins.

Arizona sports bettors are a minor part of the larger question about hosting MLB games, which is itself is just a minuscule part of the overall response to the coronavirus pandemic. Still, if hundreds of regular season baseball games are played in Arizona this May or June, possibly as the only major sports league in play, the Grand Canyon State will miss out on an unprecedented opportunity for legal sports betting even as more than 20 other states advance sports wagering options of their own.

Arizona Remains Online Gambling Desert

Arizona doesn’t have any commercial casinos, but it has plenty of gaming options. There are 24 casinos on federally recognized tribal lands, several horse tracks and a state lottery that sells nearly $1 billion in tickets each year.

Legal online gambling is non-existent.

The state has no legal real money online poker, casino or sports betting options. It is among a handful of states that do not permit daily fantasy sports. Online gaming discussions have percolated in the state legislature for several years, but as more states accept internet-based gambling, Arizona remains opposed. Even DFS regulation legislation has failed to come into law as the games become seemingly ubiquitous in nearly every other state.

The Supreme Court ruling that struck down the federal sports betting ban in May 2018 sparked interest in legal wagering for the Native American casinos, but those didn’t include online options. In-person betting legislation failed in 2019, and an updated proposal in 2020 was sidelined even before the Arizona Legislature adjourned earlier this year.

Though Arizona has become less conservative politically in recent years, anti-gambling sentiments still carry considerable sway in Phoenix. Arizona holds elections for its entire House of Representatives and Senate this November, meaning a new legislature will be seated when the 2021 session begins in January. That’s the earliest lawmakers could consider sports betting, long after the hypothetical, Arizona-only 2020 MLB season.

Possible Next Steps

With the fate of any 2020 sports league still in doubt, its safe to assume Arizona lawmakers will still consider legislation to wager on competitions in 2021. The shape of that bill remains undetermined.

The Native American casinos, which generate nearly $2 billion in gaming revenues annually, will almost assuredly be the focal point. With those totals set to plummet due to COVID-19, its hard to imagine them working against a potential new revenue source.

Passing the legislation will be more difficult. This year’s bill would have allowed the tribes to run betting operations on not just their properties but commercial properties with liquor licenses. That could run afoul of federal statutes, which limit gaming to sovereign tribal lands.

A casino-only bill would seem to be more feasible, and Native American casinos in neighboring New Mexico started accepting retail bets on their properties even without an act of the legislature, but insistence on a more expansive bill could tank the effort.

Online wagering, which makes up nearly 90% of gaming handles in mature markets such as Pennsylvania and New Jersey, also remains a more difficult legislative challenge. Shifting political attitudes as well as the proliferation of new online sports betting options in other states could help thaw opposition to internet wagering in Arizona, but that process has gained little momentum so far in the legislature.

The long-shot effort to conduct some or all of the pro baseball season in Arizona could help put a focus on the state’s sports betting options, or lack thereof. More than 20 states have started taking legal bets or passed laws to do so. With baseball, and hypothetically Arizona, the unquestioned center of the American sports gambling world, the spotlight would only intensify.

With casinos (and the host stadiums) likely closed to the public during that time, it would also underscore the need for robust mobile betting options.

All that remains hypothetical at best. If it’s any consolation, it’s “only” 300 miles from Phoenix to Las Vegas, which undoubtedly will have plenty of betting options for the 2020 MLB season, in whatever form it takes.