MARYLAND SPORTS BETTING PUSHES FORWARD WITH PUBLISHING OF EMERGENCY RULES FOR SPORTS BETTING GOVERNING

Maryland sports betting took another step forward a few days ago. The emergency rules for the governing of MD sports betting were published in the Maryland Register. However, the potential regulations come in at a whopping two hundred and twenty seven pages.

This is a lot for any one person to read! Luckily, the Maryland Register included section headers that are clickable to help readers get through them. The publishing marks the start of the thirty day public comment period that needs to take place.

There will be a meeting for public comments held by the Maryland Lottery and Gaming Control Commission coming up on September 22nd. But, at this time, no launch date has been announced for the start of Maryland online sports betting.

Both Maryland and Arizona legalized sports betting back in April. However Maryland has been lagging behind Arizona in heading towards a launch.

Arizona, despite potential delays, is currently set to launch AZ sports betting on September 9th in time for NFL betting. Maryland sports bettors may not be able to even place their bets in the state during the NFL season. At this time, many Maryland casino operators are eager for sports betting in the state to get under way.

Casino operators like Live!, which has partnered with the FanDuel Sportsbook, is looking forward to launching in the state as soon as possible. And, Horseshoe Baltimore, which is majority owned by Caesars, is looking forward to opening its own Caesars Sportsbook as soon as it can launch.

Meanwhile, Rocky Gap is currently negotiating with potential sportsbook partners in the state. In addition, MGM National Harbor has already received the approval needed for its sports bar that would be powered by BetMGM. It would include eight tabletop VLTs.

At this time, Maryland is losing out potential sports betting revenue to neighboring states that have already taken the plunge into legal sports betting. These states are Delaware, Virginia, Pennsylvania, Washington D.C., as well as West Virginia. So, the state would do best to launch Maryland sports betting sooner rather than later.

It is anticipated that there will be many options for operators for sports bettors to choose from once Maryland sports betting launches. And, the state is hoping to lure sports bettors from those neighboring states to its own market.

At this time, it appears Maryland will offer potentially as many as one hundred sports betting licenses in the state. These will include up to forty retail sports betting licenses as well as up to sixty mobile sports betting licenses. This amount is much larger than the licenses offered by many of the other states that have legal sports betting.

Both retail sports betting and mobile sports betting in Maryland will have their revenue taxed at a rate of 15%.

Written by Allie Nelson, our US Sports Betting Industry expert. You can learn more about our author's expertise here.