Maryland to accelerate online betting licensing
The SWARC agreed to issue licenses for mobile sports betting on a permanent basis, aiming to release the vertical during this year.
Earlier this month SWARC released an applications mobile betting license which will last till October 21st. The fee for application is 500 thousand dollars
At a meeting that took place on September 22nd, the deputy director and MLGCA’s COO and deputy director Jim Nielsen, said that it would be better to issue licenses on a permanent basis in order to meet the demand for sports betting faster.
Nevertheless, he also stated that it will happen only if they receive less than sixty applications, which is the maximum number of sports betting licenses accessible.
“It’s preferable – and maybe profitable – for SWARC to issue licenses on an ongoing basis. The public is eager to get sports betting. We daily get asked about the release. SWARC is able to make mobile betting available somewhat sooner by awarding licenses on a rolling basis.”
said Nielsen.
Nielsen added that acceptable candidates can be issued licenses in a short period of time – especially mobile applicants.
“Any person who has submitted a timely and acceptable application may be granted a license. The winners would have to meet operational requirements – internal control, responsible gaming, controlled demonstrations and all that sort of stuff – and then they could be granted a license in a very short time. As for mobile licenses, they don’t need to create anything, so they can go faster than some Class B operations we’ve seen.”
added the COO.
The proposal was adopted unanimously.