Gov. Phil Scott’s proposals to expand gambling in Vermont by legalizing online sports betting and keno, a game similar to bingo, are drawing a mixed response from Democratic lawmakers.
Leaders in the House are signaling that they will not support the governor’s gambling proposals, which were pitched in his budget address on Tuesday as a way to raise a projected $4 million in new revenue for the state.
The governor’s endorsement of sports betting appears to be a change of heart. Two years ago, Scott said of the online game: “That’s not the answer to Vermont’s fiscal issues.”
House Speaker Mitzi Johnson, D-South Hero, said her chamber has historically opposed efforts to expand the state lottery, and she is not inclined to back the proposals.
Two Democratic committee chairs in the Senate, however, have already proposed legislation that would legalize sports betting.
Sen. Dick Sears, D-Bennington, chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee and one of the sponsors of the bill, said he doubts that keno will move forward in the Legislature this year.
Sears previously supported a proposal from former lottery commissioner Greg Smith, to legalize the game, which is typically played in restaurants and bars. But Sears said that the idea, which the commissioner proposed in 2013, went over like “a lead balloon” in the Statehouse. The Joint Fiscal Office found that the game would raise between $1.5 million to $3.5 million in the first three years.
“No traction whatsoever,” Sears said. “There’s a lot of anti-gambling folks in the Legislature.”
Indeed, the proposals to collect additional revenue from the state lottery have met with a cool reception in the House.
Rep. Tom Stevens, D-Waterbury, who chairs the House General, Housing and Military Affairs Committee, which writes policy governing the lottery system, said he has concerns about legalizing sports betting.
“It’s not my preferred method of raising money when we know that so many people have made so many benefits from tax breaks over the last three years,” he said. “Why are we taxing people for what’s potentially a bad habit, rather than taxing people who have the capacity to do it?”
He expressed even stronger opposition to legalizing keno, which he called an “addictive” and a “terrible” game.
“People might as well put their wallet on the bar and hand all their money to the person who’s doing it. It’s a terrible way to raise money and it’s a terrible thing to do to people who get addicted to it,” Stevens said.
States including Pennsylvania and New Hampshire have recently moved to legalize keno, while others including Massachusetts and New York have permitted the game since the 1990s.
New Hampshire legalized keno in 2017, and the tax revenues it collects from the game are given to school districts that offer full-day kindergarten programs. Those revenues however, have fallen short of state projections. As a result 166 establishments offer the game statewide. Sales have totaled $23.8 million and profits reached nearly $4.5 million.
The Scott administration is proposing to use the $2 million in expected annual tax revenue from keno to fund a small increase in subsidies for families seeking child care services.
Johnson, the House speaker, has opposed the idea of using money from the state lottery — which would otherwise go into the education fund to pay for K-12 school initiatives — for child care subsidies.
“We’ll certainly wait and listen to the details,” she said. “Expanding the lottery and stealing money from the education fund haven’t gone all that well in the House in the past.”
Sears, who is proposing legislation to legalize sports betting with Sen. Michael Sirotkin, D-Chittenden, the chair of the Senate Economic Development Committee, said that many Vermonters are already placing sports bets online.
“There’s so much money going on in sports betting today that it seems to me that you know, now that states like New Hampshire entered into it, Rhode Island, that we should be doing it as well,” Sears said.
DraftKings and Fanduel, the major U.S. online sports betting operators, spent more than $84,000 each on lobbying in Vermont during the 2017-2018 biennium, according to the Secretary of State’s website. Neither company has reported any spending on lobbying since January 2019.
Rep. Tom Burditt, R-West Rutland, has proposed a bill to legalize sports betting in the House. His plan would only legalize sports betting organized by companies with a brick and mortar presence in Vermont.
“I think that doing the sports betting is a win for Vermont, but if you can also have it so that you’re gaining some jobs it’s a win-win,” he said.
He said he was glad that the governor included sports betting in his budget proposal.
“I think we’re losing out,” Burditt said. “There’s a lot of money to be made. People are going to be doing their sports betting anyway — whether it’s legal here, or not.”
Correction: The caption on a photo with a previous version of this article incorrectly identified Rep. Tom Burditt as ranking member of the House Judiciary Committee. He is the vice chair.