Before regulated sports betting became the law of the land, everyone involved in US-facing sports betting had a vision of what life outside of the black market might look like. One of those visionaries was professional gambler Billy Walters. Now that sports betting is legal, Walters is opening up about how badly he thinks things have gone.
Speaking on a panel at the recent National Council of Legislators from Gaming States (NCLGS) conference, Walters opened up what’s not working in US sports betting. “I wanted to see sports betting legalized. I want to see it regulated. I wanted to see the criminal element out of it. I wanted to see jobs created, taxes created and I wanted to see people in America be able to do what they were already doing, and engage in betting on sports and doing it in a legal environment,” he said in comments reported on by SBC Americas.
Walters’ biggest beef with the US sports betting industry is that he feels experts like himself weren’t consulted with before regulated play was launched. “To my knowledge, I don’t think anyone with knowledge of the sports betting was involved in that process.”
His next biggest beef is that the industry is dominated by British companies that don’t understand US sports betting and bar successful players from the action without any transparency. “If they can’t operate like this and be profitable, maybe they shouldn’t have a license. Because I know there’s lots of people that can,” he pointed out.
“All I’m asking the regulators to do is referee this and make sure that the sports player is being treated fairly in the way you would want to be treated,” he concluded.
While Walters, a best-selling author, is influential with players it remains to be seen whether or not industry players will take his comments seriously.