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Rhode Island Okay’s Remote Registrations for Mobile Betting
By GP News Team Jul 27, 2020 LegalityRhode Island bettors can now sign-up for mobile betting accounts remotely after lawmakers abolished the in-person registration requirement last week. The move was made in a bid to reel in more revenue from the sports betting industry.On Thursday, the 23rd of July, Governor Gina Raimondo signed bills SB 2919 and HB 8097 into law, marking a new era in the local sports betting industry. These new bills will now let sports fans sign up for new sports betting accounts remotely, without having to present themselves in a casino. With The Ocean State out of the equation, the number of states in the USA where bettors must go to a casino to create an online sports betting account in-person is down to three; Illinois, Nevada, and Iowa.
Senator Dominick Ruggerio sponsored SB 2919 in the senate while Nicholas Mattiello, the Speaker of the House sponsored HB 8097. Lawmakers passed both bills on the 16th of July before they were passed to the governor for final signatures. The Senate bill was passed in a landslide vote of 32-4, while the House version was given a thumbs up in a 57-12 margin. Residents of The Ocean State will finally have the pleasure of creating their sports betting accounts remotely in a month, with enough time for new sign-ups before the 2020 NFL season kicks off.
The Need for Revenue Boost in Rhode Island
Initially, after creating an account via mobile betting apps, players had to go through an extra step of verification by presenting themselves in a land-based casino in the state. Now that the law has changed, the future is brighter than ever for Rhode Island’s sports betting industry.
While vouching for the two bills that would do away with in-person registrations, the legislators in the state pointed out that such a regulation would make it easier for sports betting operators to take in new customers. Based on the data from Rhode Island’s Department of Revenue, about 14,000 bettors who had started the account creation process via mobile did not complete the final step of presenting themselves to casino premises.
Moreover, because of the constraint of having to visit a physical casino, the conversion rate of application downloads of sportsbook apps in The Ocean State was only 45%. This is roughly 30% less than the industry average which is about 75%. Such numbers only confirm that the state was sitting on a lot of unexploited potential owing to the flaw in the laws- as many analysts have put it. This data holds more significance to the state particularly since Rhode Island, like many other states in the country, has experienced upsetting revenue declines as a result of the Coronavirus pandemic. For instance, The Ocean State only collected $1.5 million in May, compared to about $15 million that was accrued over the same period last year.
On top of boosting the state’s kitty by doing away with the unfavorable law, legislators are also targeting bettors from neighboring states such as Massachusetts where mobile betting hasn’t been legalized yet. With the new law, Massachusetts bettors will only be required to cross over to Rhode Island to start enjoying the perks of betting on the go. This movement across the state lines was observed when New Jersey allowed sports betting on mobile, and sports fans from The Empire State regularly crossed the Hudson River just to enjoy mobile betting.
Iowa and Illinois to Follow Suit
After almost one year of regulating mobile sports betting in Rhode Island, the lawmakers have finally done right by the state’s sports betting industry. The in-person registration requirement had held the industry back, dampening its potential to grow over the past few months, especially when the COVID-19 pandemic kicked in.
IGT (Information Game Technology) one of the largest suppliers of gaming technology in the sports and casino industry, has indicated that it’s already taking measures that will facilitate remote creation of mobile betting accounts in the state. Currently, the William Hill sportsbooks hosted by the Lincoln and Tiverton casinos of Twin River Holdings are powered by IGT.
While Nevada hasn’t considered doing away with the in-person registration requirements any time soon, Iowa and Illinois plan to follow the footsteps of The Ocean State. Iowa is looking to allow remote registrations by early 2021, while Illinois will let players register for new accounts remotely when interactive betting licenses are rolled out in the state. And by the way, Illinois had briefly allowed remote sign-ups when the pandemic driven restrictions were implemented in the state.
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