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Things are heating up in Arizona as the Arizona Department of Gaming (ADG) has proposed to double the number of mobile betting sites in its second draft of gaming regulations. This new draft proposal is to be discussed in the upcoming second virtual stakeholder input session scheduled for July 7.
The most notable change with the new proposed gaming regulations is the provision for events wagering operators to have up to two skins or digital platforms as long as they have the same hardware system in place. These new regulations essentially double the amount betting services operators can offer. This is a big change for the Arizona sports betting market and is against what most commercial operators want.
The proposed regulations have provision for 20 event wagering operator licenses. The license will permit one brick-and-mortar location and two digital platforms. Competition for the licenses will be tight since half of them are already reserved for local tribal casinos and the other half for professional sports franchises.
The expansion of mobile sites was not the only highlight of the draft release. The proposed rules now set the tax rate for retail betting at eight percent and ten percent for digital bets. The license fees are also very high with the initial licensing fee for operators set at $750,000.
Besides that, there is an additional $100,000 license application fee and a $150,000 annual renewal fee. Limited operator licenses, which are available for race tracks and OTBs are much cheaper. The initial license fee is $25,000 and there is a $5,000 application fee. Renewal fees are set at $5,000 annually.
Some of the other important changes with the new proposed regulations include allowing players to use their credit cards to fund their accounts. The sports gaming regulator has also been tasked with the responsibility of getting betting operators to use official league data for their results.
New Rules Don’t Address Key Question
However, there is one issue that was not addressed. With 15 gaming tribes in the state, only 10 of them are eligible to receive a license. The latest draft didn’t specify which of these tribes will be among the lucky ten tribes. Hopefully, this will be cleared up during the upcoming input session on July 7.
Lawmakers hope to launch sports betting in Arizona by the first week of September, right in time for the NFL season.
