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Sports Betting Launches in Indiana, Governor Places First Bet

At noon on Sunday, Indiana governor Eric Holcomb placed the first legal sports bet ever in the state of Indiana. At the Indiana Grand Casino in Shelbyville, he bet $10 on the Indiana Fever to win Sunday night’s game, $10 on the Pacers to win the NBA Championship, and $10 on the Colts for the Super Bowl.

In addition to Indiana Grand Casino, two other casinos launched sports betting on Sunday, Ameristar Casino in East Chicago and Hollywood Casino in Lawrenceburg. Eight more are slated to launch sportsbooks over the course of the next two weeks, and six more have gotten the okay from regulators but don’t yet have a launch date.

Indiana’s sports betting bill was passed in May, a year after the Supreme Court repealed PASPA, the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act of 1992, which prohibited sports betting. Since PASPA was repealed, numerous states have launched or are planning to launch sports betting. Indiana acted fairly quickly, launching sports betting operations only a few months after the bill was passed. 

What Can You Bet On?

Indiana sports betting law allows betting on major league sports, including the NFL, NBA, MLB, and NHL. Professional events like boxing, golf, soccer, tennis, and auto racing can also be bet on, as well as less popular events like darts, lacrosse, sailing, and cricket. Even NCAA Division I sports betting is allowed, which is pretty exciting for fans of March Madness.

Traditional sports bets are allowed as well as proposition bets, which allow you to bet on a specific occurrence within a game.

What Happened to Mobile Betting?

The glaring omission from the September 1 sports betting launch is that of mobile betting, which is allowed according to Indiana’s sports betting law but no casino has actually taken the plunge to do it. Sara Gonso Tait, executive director of the Indiana Gaming Commission, said that no location has even submitted an application for mobile sports betting yet. But they will come, she said, probably after all the retail betting locations have launched. Despite the slow mobile launch, Hoosiers are fairly excited that they can finally place sports bets on their favorite teams, legally.