Iowa Regulation Changes Receive Backlash From Legislature
Hearing Tentatively Scheduled for Spring 2025
The Iowa Racing & Gaming Commission’s proposal of requiring additional steps to create sports betting accounts is going nowhere for now. The Iowa Legislature’s Administrative Rules Review Committee said the Iowa regulation changes would be too difficult to enforce. The committee voted to take up the subject again at the end of the 2025 legislative session.
The proposed Iowa regulation changes would have required extra steps to verify the identities of anyone creating an account. Commissioner Tina Eick said this could be done by comparing a government ID to a photo taken when registering. It could also involve a person’s history from a database service, such as Lexis-Nexus.
“We are going to try to see on the front end if we can keep them from getting mobile accounts to avoid some of the situations that we’ve seen in the headlines,” Eick said. “It’s an attempt to be proactive.”
The biggest complaint the legislators had was a rule that would see the sportsbook operators compile a list of players and coaches who would not be allowed to bet on games involving their teams. Wes Ehrecke, of the Iowa Gaming Association, said the rule was written too vague. As written, he said, sportsbooks would need to track thousands of individuals, which are constantly changing.
Iowa Betting Scandal Prompted Changes
If not for last year’s betting scandal involving college athletes, no Iowa regulation changes would have been proposed. The proposed changes in sports betting rules were first discussed in August. That is roughly three weeks after 25 Iowa and Iowa State athletes were charged with identity theft and underage gambling. Most of the athletes charged weren’t big bettors. Most were charged with identity theft under $1,500.
Despite being on the “inside,” the athletes weren’t particularly successful, either. They didn’t have inside information for the best NCAA bets to make. They were just college kids doing things college kids do. The athletes weren’t overly sophisticated bettors. There was little handicapping or use of a betting odds calculator to help make their picks. Bets were made primarily for fun.
Some of the student-athletes saw their charges eventually dropped due to the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation conducting warrantless searches. The majority made deals with prosecutors to plead guilty to underage gambling, and the identity theft charges were dropped. Those who made guilty pleas were required to pay a fine of $645.
The DCI received a black eye when its tactics came out, however, the Iowa Racing & Gaming Commission worked with them on creating the proposed rule changes. The charges of illegal searches were bad enough, but there are also contentions DCI lied to its own agents. Agents were told the target of the investigation was the online sportsbook operators. That prompted agents to tell the athletes they were not the subject of a criminal investigation during interviews, although that wasn’t the case. Once DCI Special Agent Mark Ludwick found out the real purpose of the investigation, he refused to continue and put in a request for reassignment.
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