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SportsTranscript
00:00Alright, so let's let's close it out here with the story that I'll never understand still to this day. I don't get it. I don't understand it. You can try and explain it to me. There are there are offshore sports betting sites that have been around for decades and even with the legalization of sports betting, they continue to operate illegally overseas everywhere.
00:24And so there's a story that you guys have up over legal sports report. I'm trying to understand this one. Louisiana is not happy that a company called Bovada, who's been around as long as I can remember, are operating illegally in their state, as they are operating illegally in every state. So there is a cease and desist. What does this even mean? Like, okay, like, they've got a cease and desist, but like, none of these operators offshore ever abided by these. So what is different about this?
00:53Well, see, that's kind of the interesting part is, to your point, for a while, it didn't seem it was making any difference that they were sending these cease and desist or telling these companies to stop operating. But this is just kind of the latest state that I think is starting to make a change in how this is happening.
01:13Earlier this year, we saw Michigan, my state, Michigan up here, send a cease and desist to Bovada and a bunch of sweepstakes companies last year, a couple other illegal operators, and they've shut down, including Bovada. Bovada now has shut down in I think it's 11 U.S. markets, 10 states and D.C. from states, regulators sending a cease and desist saying you can't operate here anymore.
01:37And this kind of goes back, I think it was two years ago, the American Gaming Association sent a letter to Bovada or to the Attorney General saying, can you help us track down on illegal sports betting or illegal gambling operators from offshore?
01:52That was followed up last year by Michigan regulators and I think seven Sinead states to the Attorney General saying the same thing. We need help. Well, then Michigan started doing it. We've seen West Virginia do it. We've seen New Jersey do it. We're seeing Massachusetts do it.
02:08Louisiana, just the latest, Charles Hebert, the new Louisiana Gaming Control Board chairman, talked about it a little bit at his meeting last month and said, you know, we've seen a lot of states do it. It's working. We want to make sure that our consumers are protected, that our markets protected, that we're regulated, safe market that creates taxes and maintains consumer protections.
02:30And as of right now, we haven't seen Bovada pull out of Louisiana, but I wouldn't be fully surprised if they do. Just based on the recent activity, you know, they just pulled out of Ohio last week or last month. So, yeah, really interesting. To your point, during the commercial break, you mentioned or you said, you know, this is something we're probably going to battle for the next 20 years. It might be forever.
02:52You know, these operators continue to pop up. They find loopholes in different regulations to make it so they don't necessarily break any laws. Bovada fully is an offshore illegal market, but there's plenty of gray market, as we call them, where they're kind of fitting through the regulations. So, yeah, this is something, to your point in the break, is something we're going to be dealing with for a long time. So, this is not the last story I'm sure we'll talk about CNDs.