By Ryan Randazzo | Arizona Republic
(Disclosure: Rose Law Group represents PGA Tour)
When legal sports books open in Arizona this year, gamblers who owe child support or court fines and win big are likely to have their money garnished to pay their debts to the state.
The so-called “debt setoff” is among 13 pages of draft rules the Arizona Department of Gaming released this week for the sports-betting industry. The industry was legalized this year in the state in a sweeping deal that also allowed for expanded tribal casinos.
The draft rules do not include the price professional sports teams will pay or the fees they will share with the state, but they dig into the minutiae of how sportsbooks are expected to operate. They deal with issues from advertising to barring certain criminals from the betting venues.
The department will accept public comments on the draft rules through Monday and has virtual comment sessions scheduled Friday and Monday.
“The good news is that both the regulators and operators and all the stakeholders are getting together in a room, a virtual room, to hash this out,” said Joe Bertolone, executive director of the International Center for Gaming Regulation at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.
