Tribal Sports Betting: Three Models of Legalization

Abstract

In the wake of the Supreme Court's invalidation of the federal Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act, a majority of states have legalized sports wagering. In states where tribes operate gaming, states have varied approaches to authorizing tribal sports wagering. A state's regulatory approach impacts tribes' sports betting operations in multiple ways: whether and where tribes can offer mobile wagering, what in-state commercial competition tribal operations will face, and to what extent state law and state regulations will apply to a tribe's sports-betting operations. In this article, we identify emerging empirical trends and specify the three most-prevalent state legalization and regulatory approaches to tribal sports wagering on a national level: the Compact Model, under which tribal sports betting is conducted and regulated according to federal law and the tribal-state compact, and is confined to Indian lands; the Commercial Model, under which tribes may operate sports betting under state license and in direct competition with commercial operators; and the Combined Model, in which tribal sports betting is conducted and regulated through a combination of federal law and the tribal-state compact (for tribal sports betting conducted on Indian lands), and state law (for tribal sports betting conducted outside of Indian lands but within the state's borders). The models we provide here are a first, and foundational, step in identifying and establishing emerging and best practices to authorization and regulatory frameworks to help all stakeholders navigate this highly dynamic legal, regulatory, and market environment at the intersection of theory and practice in gaming law and policy.