Revise fantasy sports laws
SB 551 would create a new statutory framework for internet fantasy sports contests in Montana and declare that those contests are legal when offered by a licensed service provider. The bill defines key terms such as fantasy sports contest, internet fantasy sports contest, player, service provider, adjusted revenues, and location percentage, and it limits participation to individuals age 18 or older. It also sets out rules intended to distinguish fantasy sports from prohibited gambling, including requirements that outcomes be based on accumulated statistical performance and not solely on a single game, team, or athlete performance.
The bill assigns the Department of Justice primary regulatory authority over the industry. The department would review applicants, conduct background checks and investigations, issue and suspend licenses, adopt rules, assess fines, and enforce compliance. Applicants would pay a $5,000 initial license fee, then either a $1,000 or $5,000 annual renewal fee depending on revenue, plus a regulatory fee tied to administrative costs. Licensed operators would be subject to recordkeeping, annual audits, reporting obligations, player fund protections, restrictions on employee participation, age verification, and a ban on credit card payments by players.
SB 551 would amend Montana gambling statutes to carve internet fantasy sports contests out of the state’s general gambling prohibitions and to exclude them from the definitions of illegal gambling, internet gambling, and related lottery provisions. It would also update existing statutes governing the Department of Justice’s authority over gambling to include these new contests, while preserving confidentiality for certain records and investigative information. The bill would impose a 6.75% tax on internet fantasy sports contest adjusted revenues, with revenue deposited into the general fund, and would require licensees to maintain player funds and comply with audits, reporting, and consumer-protection requirements. It would affect fantasy sports operators, players, the Department of Justice, and state revenue collections.
The available vote history suggests the bill had some support but ultimately failed to advance. It received a unanimous 11-0 vote to table in the Senate Business, Labor and Economic Affairs Committee, followed by a 23-25 failed motion, indicating that the proposal remained contested and did not secure enough support to move forward. No committee transcript is available, so the record does not show detailed public debate, but the mixed procedural outcome indicates interest in the concept alongside sufficient opposition to stop it.
The main points of contention likely centered on whether internet fantasy sports should be treated as a lawful skill-based contest or as a form of gambling requiring strict regulation. The bill’s opponents or skeptics may have focused on the expansion of gambling-like activity, the adequacy of consumer protections, and the state’s role in licensing and taxing the industry. Supporters likely emphasized the bill’s regulatory safeguards, age limits, background checks, fund protections, and explicit exclusions designed to separate fantasy sports from prohibited gambling. The failed motion after committee tabling suggests disagreement over whether the bill should proceed, even though the committee initially voted to table it unanimously.