The island of Hawaii is inching ever-closer to its first forms of regulated gaming after Governor Josh Green said he would not veto a bill authorizing sports betting on the islands. But while Governor Green is on board with HB 1308, plenty of opposition and debate remain.
The Governor voiced his support of regulated Hawaiian sports betting in comments reported on by HawaiiNewsNow.com saying, “Look, as long as there’s some safeguards with gambling addiction services and so on, if the Legislature goes to the full way and passes it, I’ll likely let it become law.”
“The world’s changing quite a lot and what people said in our survey was if you spend the revenues in a good place like on Hawaiian Home Lands housing or housing for the workforce, a lot of people supported it,” he added.
Representative Kim Green, a Democrat, joined a bipartisan group of lawmakers opposing the bill and its perceived coddling of the gaming industry saying, “I just hope that there will be some consideration given to mitigating instead of just looking to allow for profits to be generated for these companies.”
Rep. Daniel Holt, a gaming supporter, pointed out the potential economic impact of regulated gaming adding, “It’s possible to increase our job count by 6,000 jobs and a benefit of $250 million plus to our economy.”
Recent polling shows that support for regulated gambling in Hawaii is growing and that sports betting supporters could see their wishes come true. As is stands, Hawaii is one of just two US State offering exactly zero forms of legal gambling.