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The Sports Betting Alliance says this year’s legislative results were mixed, but the group believes momentum is still building for both sports betting expansion and the defense of regulated markets.
SBA president Joe Maloney told Covers that 2026 showed more lawmakers are spending time on how legal sports betting and iGaming should be structured, even when bills do not cross the finish line. He pointed to Georgia, Virginia, Massachusetts, Maryland, and Colorado as examples of states where the policy conversation moved forward in different ways.
Georgia advanced a sports betting proposal further than in prior years, including a House floor vote, before the effort failed. Maloney said that kind of progress matters because it shows lawmakers are seriously weighing legalization. Virginia also saw iGaming legislation pass both chambers, though it did not reach the governor.
In Massachusetts, regulators have started studying what an online casino framework could look like. In Maryland, supporters had to regroup after a leading legislative sponsor left to run for county executive. Colorado, meanwhile, considered broader consumer protection changes, including advertising limits and bans on proposition wagers, but ultimately adopted narrower measures.
Maloney said the industry is now in a phase where protecting existing legal markets matters as much as opening new ones. That includes pushing back on higher taxes and restrictions that licensed operators argue could make regulated products less competitive with offshore sportsbooks and other unregulated gambling sites.
He also flagged Ohio as a notable warning sign after it became the first legal sports betting state to introduce legislation that would again outlaw regulated platforms.
The SBA’s members include FanDuel, DraftKings, BetMGM, Fanatics Sportsbook, and bet365. Maloney, who took over the group in 2025 after working at the American Gaming Association, said offshore competition remains a major challenge. He cited AGA data showing that before the 2018 repeal of the federal sports wagering ban, roughly three-quarters of sports bets were placed through illegal operators, compared with more than half now being handled by regulated sportsbooks.
For California readers, the update is mainly a reminder that large states are still debating how online gambling should be legalized and regulated. What to watch next is whether states such as Georgia revive sports betting efforts in 2027, whether Virginia revisits iGaming, and whether more legislatures focus not just on legalization, but on taxes, product limits, and competition from unregulated sites.
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Source: As reported by Ryan Butler.
