Proposed bill would make it a crime to share a sports betting account with someone or place bets on their behalf

DES MOINES — The state’s law enforcement agency is asking legislators to clarify in state law that sharing sports gambling accounts with other bettors is illegal, and that state law enforcement officials have the authority to investigate those alleged crimes.

A bill proposed by the Iowa Department of Public Safety was considered Wednesday during a legislative hearing at the Iowa Capitol.

Currently, Iowa’s administrative rules say that account sharing and proxy betting — one person placing bets on another’s behalf — are illegal. But neither is stated in state law, and because of that — according to a representative of the Iowa Department of Public Safety who spoke at Wednesday’s legislative hearing — law enforcement officers believe there is no mechanism to charge individuals with either crime.

The department’s legislative proposal, Senate Study Bill 1097, would add the prohibitions on account sharing and proxy betting to the crime of illegal gaming in state law.

“It’s the reality (that) Iowa is at the forefront of sports betting,” Iowa Sen. Dan Dawson, a Republican from Council Bluffs on the subcommittee panel and an Iowa State Trooper, told The Gazette after the hearing. “If things could have been drafted differently, or some of these things could have been foreseen, it would have went in (the original state law that passed in 2019). …

“IRGC (the Iowa Racing and Gaming Commission, which provides oversight of gaming in the state) did a great job, where they said, ‘Hey, this has to be illegal, so maybe put this in the administrative rule.’ This just codifies that.”

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More than two dozen student-athletes at the University of Iowa and Iowa State University were investigated by the state for illegal sports betting in 2023. According to the Associated Press, most paid fines after entering guilty pleas to underage gambling in exchange for having identity theft charges dismissed.

In March of 2024, prosecutors in Story County dropped charges against the Iowa State student-athletes because the prosecutors believed state investigators exceeded the permitted use of geofencing technology in their investigation.

The next month, 26 student-athletes sued the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation — which is housed within the Iowa Department of Public Safety — alleging their constitutional rights were violated by the investigation because it occurred without a warrant. That lawsuit still is pending and has been altered to name just three DCI employees as defendants.

Dawson said the proposed legislation was not inspired by those cases. However, emails from DCI investigators in 2023 revealed a belief that state laws needed to be updated to make proxy betting illegal, the Associated Press reported.

Other than the Department of Public Safety, only one organization has taken a position on the proposed legislation, according to state lobbying records. The Iowa Behavioral Health Association, which opposes gambling, is registered in support of the bill. Lobbyists who attended Wednesday’s subcommittee hearing, including one for sports betting companies, said they are simply monitoring the bill.

Iowa Sen. Janet Petersen, a Democrat from Des Moines on the subcommittee panel, said during the hearing that she believes more of the onus on enforcing sports betting restrictions should fall on the sports betting companies, not Iowans or state law enforcement.

“To me, it seems like the front end safeguards are clearly not there,” Petersen said. “Kids should not be gaming. … The companies that can afford to put safeguards in place, they’re clearly not doing it.”

Dawson and Sen. Tom Shipley, a Republican from Nodaway, signed off on advancing the legislation forward. The bill is now eligible for consideration by the full Senate Judiciary Committee.

Comments: (515) 355-1300, erin.murphy@thegazette.com

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