Online sports betting in Hawaii will have to wait after a push to legalize it petered out in the state legislature.
Friday was the final working day of the legislature’s session, and Rep Daniel Holt’s bill that sought to bring online sports betting to Hawaii stalled out in a committee.
“We just haven’t come to an agreement on the details with number of operators, tax rate, fees and those kinds of things,” Holt told KHON2. “And there’s still some kind of questions left unanswered by some of the members who have concerns about sports betting.”
Holt introduced the bill, HB 1308, in January of this year. The legislation would have licensed four or more online sportsbooks to operate in Hawaii, but the initial iteration of HB 1308 did not address either tax rate or licensing fees, leaving them open for negotiation.
The bill would have also legalized daily fantasy sports in Hawaii, where it’s currently not permitted.
The movement to legalize sports betting in Hawaii has its share of opponents both inside and outside the state legislative body.
“Our neighborhoods, and our families, have too much at stake to allow sports betting to undermine our efforts to create safe, stable and healthy communities,” Honolulu mayor Rick Blangiardi said in a statement last week. “We should not introduce a system that risks the integrity of our neighborhoods and the safety of our residents, and our focus must remain on protecting our people.”
Holt said he and other proponents of sports gambling in the legislature will “give it another try next year and we’ll see how it goes.”
–Field Level Media
