Bill Allowing A Frederick Business To Offer Sports Betting Is Before The 2021 General Assembly

It already offers off-track betting.

 

 

Frederick, Md (KM) Legislation calling for the state to issue a sport betting  license to Long Shots in Frederick is before the Maryland Senate. Sponsored by State Senator Michael Hough, the measure  was approved by the local Delegation on Friday. “So last year, voters via constitutional amendment approved sports gaming in Maryland,” he said. “And now this session, the State of Maryland has to decide who we are going to allow as far as locations as far as sports betting.”

Sports betting would allow residents to legally place wagers on sporting events such as the Super Bowl or the World Series.

Hough says legislators are considering ways to set up the operations in Maryland, and where sports betting would be located. “The casinos are pushing really hard to have at their locations, and their locations only,” he says. “A number of us are pushing to that we should have also at off-track betting facilities. There are couple of those located in the state, and there’s one in Frederick County, which is currently called Long Shots. It’s at the Clarion Inn, the former Holiday Inn, at the FSK Mall.”

If Hough’s bill passes, it would require the Maryland State Lottery and Gaming Commission to grant Long Shots a license to operate a sports wagering facility, if the legislation allowing these operations is enacted. He says legislators need to stand up for local businesses. “People aren’t going to drive from Frederick County to Baltimore or one of these other casinos,” he said. “The only way that we would be able  to get any revenue for our county to participate and or our citizens to partake in it would be to have that location in Frederick County.”

He says this type of facility would keep the money residents use for wagering on sporting events in Frederick County. “If they do not receive a license for sports betting, then individuals who live in Frederick County or this area are continuing to go to Pennsylvania or West Virginia or surrounding states in order to do their sports betting,” Hough says.

Senator Hough says he introduced the legislation in the Maryland Senate after the Delegation approved it during a Friday meeting.

 

 

By Kevin McManus