A Senate Judiciary Committee hearing that was supposed to address the Supporting Affordability and Fairness with Every Bet Act (SAFE Bet Act) was completely derailed by Senators with anti-trans agenda. Monday’s hearing featured a smattering of talk regarding the status of prop bets; responsible gaming initiatives; and how much the federal government should be regulating the US-facing sports betting industry. But thanks to Senators John Kennedy and Josh Hawley (R-LA) and Josh Hawley (R-MO), the hearing turned into an airing of grievances about the participation of trans athletes in college sports.
During the relatively brief moments that were actually focused on gambling, lawmakers from both parties called for more federal oversight of regulated sports betting. Committee Chair Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL) made one of the few sports betting-related points in the discussion saying, “It is critical that Congress look into sports betting’s impact on America and determine how the industry should be regulated going forward.”
Harry Levant, the director of gambling policy with the Public Health Advocacy Institute at Northeastern University, who also helped author the SAFE BET Act, took aim at the industry in comments reported on by ESPN.com saying, “I am vehemently opposed to what has happened in just six years. What has been launched on the American people is a newly created, AI generated online gambling business model which delivers a fundamentally different, defectively designed and inherently dangerous product to every phone, tablet, computer and TV.”
But most of the hearing consisted of conservative Senators taking aim at the presence of trans athletes in college sports. Hawley and Kennedy pummeled NCAA chief Charlie Baker with a barrage of accusations and insults such as, “Why don’t you stand up in front of god and country and say, ‘Federal law is wrong’ and ban biological males from playing in women’s games?”
A representative of the American Gaming Association lamented the hearing noting that only one representative from the gaming industry had even been called to testify.
It’s unclear what impact the hearing will have on federal sports betting reagulation.