Nevada considering expanded sports gambling

Known as Senate Bill 346, the measure would allow hedge funds and similar entities to place large-money wagers on sports.

Senate Bill 346 would allow hedge funds and similar entities to place large-money wagers on sports including gridiron football, basketball, baseball and ice hockey with the state reaping millions of dollars in additional tax revenues.

According to a report from the Reuters news service, the proposed measure received its first hearing in a Nevada Senate committee on Monday and is in the process of making its way through the legislative process.

Under current law, only individuals can place wagers with sports books in Nevada but the suggested changes would see the Nevada Gaming Commission tasked with adopting new regulations on policing while instituting additional anti-money laundering provisions. “The idea, frankly, is just to allow a group of bettors to bet as an entity,” said Nevada State Senator Greg Brower, the sponsor of Senate Bill 346.

Brower declared that his measure would also permit groups to seek out investors for funds and ‘leave it up to the expert to make the bet’. “This is an enormous untapped market,” Randy Sayre, a former member of the Nevada Gaming Control Board and a proponent of the measure, told Nevada State Senators on Monday.