Hawaii Governor Signals Likely Support for Online Sports Betting Bill

^{Hawaii Gov. Josh Green says he likely wouldn’t veto online sports betting legislation in the historically anti-gambling state if it passes through the state legislature. (Image: Audrey McAvoy / AP)}

Hawaii Governor Josh Green offered lukewarm support for an online sports betting bill working its way through his state’s legislature, saying he is unlikely to veto the legislation if it reaches his desk. 

The comments, made to Hawaii News Now, are related to House Bill 1308, which would allow for up to four online sportsbooks to operate in the state.

Green Says He Won’t Veto Bill with Safeguards

The Hawaii House of Representatives passed the bill by a 35-15 margin in March. The Hawaii Senate then approved its own version of the legislation in a 15-10 vote on April 9.

In his comments, Gov. Green suggested that changing public attitudes towards gaming were behind his willingness to let the bill potentially pass into law.

“The world’s changing quite a lot,” Green said. “What people said in our survey was, if you spend the revenues in a good place, like on Hawaiian Homelands housing or housing for the workforce, a lot of people supported it.”

Green said that the survey showed that about two-thirds of the public supported online sports betting, though he acknowledged that the study was done by an outside entity and that his office didn’t have a copy of the survey to share with Hawaii News Now.

The governor then said he likely wouldn’t veto the bill if it was sent to him from the legislature, with one minor caveat. 

“As long as there are some safeguards with gambling addiction services and so on, if the legislature goes the full way and passes it, I’ll likely let it become law,” Green said.

Conference Committee Has Limited Time to Iron Out Amendments

However, there are still hurdles towards that passage. While the Hawaii Senate passed its own version of the bill, it did so with amendments that the Hawaii House chose to reject on April 10. That means that the legislation will now be sent to a conference committee in an effort to iron out differences between the two versions of the bill. While that seems possible, Hawaii’s legislative session only runs until May 1, meaning lawmakers have just over a week remaining to reach an agreement. 

The bill would allow for a minimum of four sports betting operators to offer services in Hawaii. There would be a licensing fee of $250,000, and the tax rate on gross revenues would be set at 10 percent. One amendment in the Senate version would have sports betting regulated under the Hawaii Department of Law Enforcement, while the original version of the bill had the Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs as the gaming regulator.

While online sports betting could become Hawaii’s first instance of legalized gambling in the state, physical casinos still seem unpopular among legislators. But while a bill that would have legalized casino gambling in the state failed to gain much traction earlier this year, lawmakers in the Hawaii House did pass a resolution on Monday that would create a working group to study legalized gambling, including the potential for gaming in the New Aloha Stadium Entertainment District.

While supporters framed this as a way for lawmakers to gain more information about the impacts of legalized gambling in Hawaii, critics noted that the inclusion of three representatives from the gaming industry in the working group might mean that the real purpose is paving the way towards casinos in the state.

“When you create a working group, invite representatives of gaming corporations to the table and ask them to help draft the tourism gaming policy, you’re not just studying the issue, you’re scripting the outcome,” Rep. Andrew Takuya Garrett (D-Manoa) said. “We’ve seen it across the country: a so-called neutral study becomes a vehicle to legitimize the industry, sideline community voices, and paint gambling as inevitable.”

Currently, Hawaii is one of only two states in the United States of America – alongside Utah – which offer no forms of legalized gambling to residents.