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00:00I've been waiting for a story like this and to pop where they're going to review the Congress.
00:10They want to review everything that's happened since sports betting has been legalized and
00:14sort of the good things that have happened, the bad things that have happened.
00:16I think this is really important to take a look back and it seems like that's what they're
00:19going to do.
00:20Been waiting on this one.
00:21Yeah, this is really not a surprise, I think, to anybody who pays attention to the industry.
00:28I mean, if you listen to Legal Sports Report podcast, which I suggest everyone do, even
00:32though it might take you away from the grid, you know, Adam and Matt Brown have been talking
00:38about this for a couple of years now about how eventually all the little tiny bad things
00:44that have popped up and made little news nuggets will kind of snowball and turn into something
00:49that the U.S. lawmakers need to pay attention to.
00:53And of course that, you know, they often brought up how, you know, on big poster boards
00:59you'll have the kind of sometimes problematic tweets from sports betting accounts and things
01:04that bring responsible gambling really into the limelight.
01:08And I think Tuesday might be the first time we see this in reality.
01:13This year has been kind of a tough year in terms of news for the industry.
01:17You know, a lot of negative things from the scandals like the Otani scandal to the Alabama
01:23baseball scandal to all these things, continued scrutiny on the responsible gambling and maybe
01:31lack thereof measures that lawmakers kind of wish there were more of.
01:36All these kind of things, the glut of advertising that people who don't maybe sports bet or
01:42don't like sports betting kind of get annoyed at.
01:44And all of this has kind of bubbled up, snowballed, made U.S. lawmakers pay attention.
01:49Of course, you know, we have a fairly significant piece of legislation called the Safe Bet Act
01:54that was written by Senator Richard Blumenthal and Representative Paul Tonko to kind of really
02:01put in a big framework of advertising guidelines to kind of really make more robust responsible
02:07gambling requirements to the nationwide situation.
02:11Then of course we have Senator Lee and Senator Welsh who have sent a letter to the Federal
02:16Trade Commission this month to say, hey, let's look at the anti-competitive measures
02:21that FanDuel and DraftKings might be doing.
02:25And all of this, again, just kind of snowballed.
02:27So sure enough, Senator Dick Durbin has called a congressional hearing for tomorrow, 10 a.m.
02:33in the Senate Judiciary Committee that will just kind of take a look.
02:37I don't know yet kind of how many witnesses we're going to go through, how many kind of
02:42things we're going to be looking at specifically.
02:44But you can be sure that it will kind of take a huge peek under the rug at this industry
02:50and see, you know, exactly what's going on and how, you know, maybe the U.S. government
02:55can affect it.
02:57And this is a heavy-hitting committee, by the way.
03:00I mean, you just look at the list of legislators that are on it.
03:03You've got Dick Durbin and Richard Blumenthal.
03:05You have Lindsey Graham, Amy Klobuchar, Chris Coons, Cory Booker, Chuck Grassley, John Cronin,
03:11Josh Hawley, Ted Cruz.
03:13So this is, you know, kind of a who's who of senators that have been on the national
03:16stage at least somewhat in the last couple of years.
03:20And you know, this is going to be something to watch and say, huh, I wonder what's going on.
03:26I, of course, am a political nerd.
03:27I love these things, especially, you know, in the last year or so we've had some weird
03:30UFO ones that are kind of fun to watch.
03:33So this kind of could be a similar thing that kind of keeps the news going.
03:38Are there going to be some negative clips coming out about the sports betting industry
03:42that will hit the mainstream media?
03:44Very likely.
03:45So I would be prepared for that if you're a big sports betting fan.