Talks Of Hawaii Sports Betting In 2021 Are Put On Hold

• Hawaii sports betting bills have been deferred to a later date.
• Sports betting in Hawaii would only be a pilot program ending in 2025.
• There are no plans for permanent Hawaii sports betting yet.

HONOLULU – Hawaii sports betting may have to wait as talks on sports betting bills have been put on hold.

Although legal sports betting has been gaining traction across the country, some states are still holding out. Hawaii is one of the few states in the country that has long held laws and views against gambling. But state legislators are making the moves to change that.

Earlier, state legislators have introduced several gambling bills to be discussed. One such bill is HI HB 736, which would allow sports betting to happen in Hawaii. However, this is not a full sports betting legalization bill.

Hawaii Sports Betting Pilot

What HI HB 736 would do will allow sports betting to happen, but for a limited time. The sports betting bill will let Hawaii enter a sports betting pilot where the state can experiment with the gambling activity. Sports betting will be done through mobile betting across all of Hawaii’s islands.

With the current bill, all of Hawaii will have full access to legal sports betting. However, since it is a pilot program, sports betting does have an expiration date. Hawaii sports betting will only last until 2025 and then the activity would presumably end afterward.

Although this is the current plan, sports betting talks in Hawaii is taking a backseat. HI HB 736 has been deferred to a later date, which means that lawmakers in Hawaii have decided to push back talks for the subject.

This does not mean that suddenly, sports betting is out of the picture in Hawaii. What this means is that state legislators do not currently view Hawaii sports betting as a top priority for the state. But they will go back to sports betting talks at a later date if there is time during the 2021 legislative session.

This might give Hawaii state legislators more time to hash out the finer details of legal sports betting and maybe come up with a more permanent plan for the activity.

News tags: Hawaii | Hawaii sports betting | HI HB 736 | Pilot Program