Hawaii
Hawaii Senate Advances Digital Sports Betting Bill
Key Points
- House Bill 1308 seeks to legalize digital sports betting in Hawaii
- Opponents cited risks of increased social problems and economic disruption
- Those promoting the bill argue that it’ll help generate substantial tax revenue
On March 13, 2025, a key Senate committee in Hawaii pushed forward a proposal to legalize digital sports betting in the state. This proposal, House Bill 1308, has been welcomed by Hawaii sports betting fans with enthusiasm, as expected.
With this proposal, four digital sports betting platforms would be allowed to operate in Hawaii without having any retail locations.
What would change
House Bill 1308 would legalize online sports betting in the state of Hawaii. However, many of the details of this legalization are not covered by the bill. Issues like tax rates and licensing fees were not included in the bill, and these have been keeping discussions active during debates about the bill. Also set to be legalized in the bill is daily fantasy sports, serving further to expand Hawaii’s online gaming options.
If the bill is approved in its current form, the Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs (DCCA) will lose its oversight on the subject to the Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism (DBEDT), in what was another critical amendment in the bill.
While there are concerns over legalizing sports betting in Hawaii, Senate members who were part of the House Bill 1308 review committee argue that digital sports betting is already happening in Hawaii but through unregulated, offshore platforms.
Concerns and opposition
For Deputy Attorney General David Williams, a known critic and opponent of this bill, legal sports betting would bring several negative consequences to the state. He argued that credit card debts, bankruptcies, and domestic abuse would rise with more access to online sports betting.
Similarly, Brandon Maka’awa’awa, vice president of the Independent & Sovereign Nation State of Hawaii, criticized the lawmaker’s failure to get an economic impact study before moving the bill forward. Then there’s DCCA Director Nadine Ando, who warned that building a regulated sports betting market afresh would be costly and difficult to achieve.
She further stated that most states with legal sports betting manage their regulatory challenges via dedicated gaming commissions—a resource that may be lacking in Hawaii. Testimony from Boyd Gaming also highlighted that similarly sized states have sometimes seen lower-than-expected revenues from sports betting, potentially undermining funding for regulatory enforcement and responsible gambling programs.
Support for modernization
Many senators feel that it is finally time for Hawaii to embrace digital gaming, despite the wave of opposition. Sen. Donna Mercado Kim has stated that sports betting is already an everyday activity in the state. She even suggested that some of the law enforcement people currently with her have placed bets at
online betting sites
just before pushing out some of the amendments’ provisions.
In her words, proceeds from betting activities can be channeled back into education and for public benefit. Here’s submission aligns with most of what has been the prevailing argument for the benefit of the proposal. The main point is that the revenue that has previously been lost to offshore operators would be captured with the legalization of digital sports betting and then put to good use.
This revenue would help strengthen the state’s finances and modernize its gambling industry. The hope is that it would create an environment that is both competitive and consumer-friendly.
Local economic implications
For traditional Hawaii casino operators and Video Gaming Terminal (VGT) operators, the stakes are particularly high. They are wary of the fact that most of the revenue they make would be cannibalized with the introduction of digital sports betting. Add this to the fact that Hawaii’s tourism and local economies are loosely tied to its existing gaming sector, and you’ll understand why they’re seriously opposing the proposal.
The larger fear is that many of these operators will lose their profits with a swift shift to online betting, ultimately leading to job losses and diminished support for public services.
The road ahead
Now that it has passed a Senate committee review, the next stop for House Bill 1308 is the Senate Ways and Means Committee. This is the last step before the bill is put to a full Senate vote. During this process, further amendments can still be added to the bill.
The challenge before the lawmakers is the task of carving out substantial new revenue streams without causing financial harm to the traditional gaming sector or social harm to the Hawaiian people.
A few issues like tax rates, licensing fees, and regulatory guidelines remain unsettled, and it’s one to keep an eye on.
Hawaii
2026 Hawaii (HHSAA) High School Baseball Playoffs: Brackets, Schedules – May 6
The 2026 Hawaii high school baseball playoffs begin on May 6th with the opening round in the Division I bracket, with the Division II bracket starting May 7th.
High School On SI has brackets for every classification and division in the Hawaii high school baseball playoffs.
The 2026 HHSAA state championship games will be on May 9th.
2026 Hawaii High School Baseball Division I Playoff Bracket, Schedule, Scores (HHSAA) – May 4, 2026
Matchups are as follows:
Pearl City vs. Moanalua
Pac-Five vs. Kaiser
King Kekaulike vs. Hilo
Kamehameha Hawai’i vs. Kailua
2026 Hawaii High School Baseball Division II Playoff Bracket, Schedule, Scores (HHSAA) – May 4, 2026
Matchups are as follows:
Waipahu vs. Hawaii Prep
Seabury Hall vs. Damien
Honoka’a vs. Castle
Kauai vs. Kapolei
More Coverage from High School On SI
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Hawaii
Hawaii County Surf Forecast for May 04, 2026 | Big Island Now
Forecast for Big Island Windward and Southeast
| Shores | Tonight | Monday | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Surf | Surf | |||
| PM | AM | AM | PM | |
| North Facing | 1-3 | 1-3 | 1-3 | 1-3 |
| East Facing | 4-6 | 4-6 | 4-6 | 3-5 |
| South Facing | 3-5 | 3-5 | 3-5 | 2-4 |
| Weather | Mostly cloudy. Occasional showers. | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Low Temperature | In the upper 60s. | ||||||
| Winds | North winds 5 to 10 mph. | ||||||
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| Weather | Partly sunny. Scattered showers. | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| High Temperature | Around 80. | |||||
| Winds | Northeast winds 5 to 10 mph. | |||||
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| Sunrise | 5:49 AM HST. | |||||
| Sunset | 6:45 PM HST. | |||||
Forecast for Big Island Leeward
| Shores | Tonight | Monday | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Surf | Surf | |||
| PM | AM | AM | PM | |
| West Facing | 2-4 | 2-4 | 2-4 | 1-3 |
| South Facing | 3-5 | 3-5 | 3-5 | 2-4 |
| Weather | Mostly cloudy until 12 AM, then partly cloudy. Scattered showers. |
||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Low Temperature | In the lower 70s. | ||||||||||
| Winds | Southwest winds around 5 mph, becoming east in the evening, then becoming light and variable after midnight. |
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| Weather | Mostly sunny. Isolated showers. | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| High Temperature | In the mid 80s. | |||||||
| Winds | Southwest winds around 5 mph. | |||||||
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| Sunrise | 5:53 AM HST. | |||||||
| Sunset | 6:49 PM HST. | |||||||
The current small northwest swell will decline tonight. A moderate northwest swell will build on Monday and produce surf above seasonal average during the peak Monday night and early Tuesday. This swell will slowly decline late Tuesday and Wednesday. A larger northwest swell could produce surf near the High Surf Advisory level Thursday, then lower Friday into next weekend.
A south-southwest swell will produce surf around seasonal average tonight and will gradually decrease Monday and Tuesday, with mainly small background surf along south facing shores through the rest of the week.
Trade wind swell will slowly lower below seasonal average on Monday and will remain small through the remainder of the week.
NORTH EAST
am
pm
Surf: Minimal (ankle high or less) surf.
Conditions: Semi choppy with ESE winds 5-10mph in the morning increasing to 10-15mph in the afternoon.
NORTH WEST
am
pm
Surf: Minimal (ankle high or less) surf.
Conditions: Clean in the morning with ESE winds less than 5mph. Bumpy/semi bumpy conditions for the afternoon with the winds shifting W 5-10mph.
WEST
am
pm
Surf: Minimal (ankle high or less) surf.
Conditions: Light sideshore texture in the morning with NNW winds 5-10mph. Bumpy/semi bumpy conditions for the afternoon with the winds shifting to the WNW.
SOUTH EAST
am
pm
Surf: Minimal (ankle high or less) surf.
Conditions: Sideshore texture/chop with NE winds 10-15mph.
Data Courtesy of NOAA.gov and SwellInfo.com
Hawaii
Hawaiian Airlines Is Gone. Travelers Just Lost The Airline That Knew Hawaii Best.
Hawaiian Airlines ended as an independently functioning airline on April 22, but what it built didn’t end with it. The parts that, in hindsight, made Hawaiian feel ahead of everyone else are the same ones Alaska is now stepping into and scaling.
Just days before the flight code disappears, it is easier to see the shape of what Hawaiian actually was. It was not just the airline that could not make the numbers work; it was the airline that kept getting the future right earlier than almost everyone else around it.
Hawaiian Airlines saw premium differently.
Beat of Hawaii editors have both been flying the Pacific on Hawaiian for nearly a half-century. And we saw it at (mostly its best) firsthand, on the second-to-last HA1 from Los Angeles to Honolulu. The 787 was not trying to copy what other U.S. carriers were doing. It was trying to reset expectations entirely, and for a regional Hawaii airline, that meant more than it would have anywhere else. Hawaiian repeatedly won top-rated U.S. airline recognition year after year, for operational performance and service.
The Adient Ascent business class suites we experienced were one example. Hawaiian backed it early, before any other U.S. airlines had committed to something comparable. At the time, that looked like a risk for a carrier already on borrowed time and with little room for error. Now it looks like it was a blueprint.
Alaska’s new international business class uses the exact same business-class platform. The headlines now belong to Alaska, but the decision to believe in that suite, when it was still unproven, belongs exclusively to Hawaiian Airlines.
Hawaiian largely built a product that reflected the emotional aspects of Hawaii flights. TEAGUE designed the interior around Hawaii, with Polynesian navigation references overhead in the ceiling, Hawaiian touches throughout, and materials tied directly to the place in a way no U.S. airline even attempts. The seat, the layout, the feel of the cabin all reflected that, in some ways at least, perfectly.
We covered that in detail in Hawaiian Airlines Dreamliner First Class Review. When the Dreamliner arrived, nothing about that experience felt like a legacy airline barely holding on. It felt like something big, maybe just getting started.
Hawaiian moved first on what travelers actually use.
Before most U.S. airlines could stabilize their hodgepodge of largely poor-quality, expensive WiFi deployments, Hawaiian moved to Starlink across its fleet, putting very fast, free connectivity on all its trans-Pacific A330S and A321neos. It simply worked from gate to gate. No falderal, no log-in, no loyalty program or credit card.
Note: Unfortunately, Hawaiian was never able to achieve WiFi certification on its Dreamliners, and Alaska is just now in the process of obtaining that.
Starlink WiFi was not a small upgrade. It changed how Hawaii flights felt, especially for travelers who were used to paying for something slow or unreliable, if it existed at all. We cannot tell you how many times we’ve flown with other airlines that promised WiFi to and from Hawaii, only to find it didn’t work or didn’t work well. Hawaiian made the right call early, and it made it across two aircraft fleets already in service, not just on new plane deliveries.
Hawaiian identified the parts of the experience that travelers actually cared about, and it moved before anyone else did. Alaska now inherits that advantage. It does not have to explain why it counts or prove that it works, since all that came and went. Hawaiian already did its part, as have others since. Alaska has also decided to deploy Starlink WiFi across its entire network that BOH editors enjoyed on a brand new Alaska 737 MAX 8 about a week ago.
Hawaiian built a brand that traveled well: Pualani.
For decades, Hawaiian showed up in Australia, Japan, Korea, and New York City (pictured) with something that already had great meaning. And that too was not an accident, nor is it easy to replicate.
The Pualani brand was consistent. The identity was tied to our iconic home in a way that translated well internationally, especially in Japan, where airline brand perception still carries weight in purchasing decisions. Travelers were not just choosing a seat or a fare. They were choosing what the airline represented.
A national branding study ranked Hawaiian first among U.S. airlines for brand effectiveness, with a score of 123 out of 200 for logo recognition, brand attribution, and consistency. Alaska scored 74 and ranked ninth. We covered that gap about Hawaiian’s reach in How Hawaiian Airlines Pualani Branding Took Aloha Global. The difference was clearly not about marketing budgets. It was about what the brand stands for when it enters a market far from home.
We have previously explored what happened to that identity. The answer is not simple, and it is not finished. Alaska can keep parts, but it can never recreate the conditions that originally built it.
Hawaiian reached further than it was capable of.
Hawaiian ordered the 787 with plans that extended well beyond Asia, including potentially London and Singapore. It also kept flying routes that did not earn their keep and never figured out how to price its product the way the rest of the industry had learned to.
What it did not have was the corporate financial structure to keep it working when conditions tightened the way they did, and its ambitions outran the balance sheet years before Alaska ever stepped in.
The failure was not Hawaiian’s vision.
That part has already been told, and it does not need to be repeated here. We covered it in Why Hawaiian Airlines Failed: A Story of Planes, Promises, And Pride.
The timing, the cost structure, and the other breakdowns, both COVID-related and around the Saber-to-Amadeus migration in 2023, and other events, all seemed to come crashing down at once.
The leadership payouts that followed only sharpened the contrast. Peter Ingram at $13.2 million, Shannon Okinaka at $4.9 million, Jonathan Snook at $5.4 million, and Aaron Alter at $4.2 million. Those numbers landed hard with many when the airline itself couldn’t remain viable.
Hawaiian needed Alaska. This was not a strategic pairing of equals, as it was once called; it was a rescue.
Alaska gets the part Hawaiian could not finish.
Alaska inherits the aircraft decisions, product direction, connectivity upgrades, and early bets Hawaiian made when it still had room to maneuver. It gets to scale them across a far larger network, and with its stronger financial base.
It also inherits the harder question. What happens to the parts of Hawaiian that were not just operational decisions, but identity?
What Hawaii loses is harder to measure for residents and kamaaina.
Hawaiian was never the biggest airline serving the islands, nor the most profitable or efficient. What it was, for a long time, was the airline that understood uniquely what a Hawaii flight was supposed to feel like.
That was demonstrated in small ways and big ones. It showed up in how the cabin felt when you boarded, the unique Hawaii-based service provided, in how the brand translated overseas, in the decisions that put traveler experience ahead of short-term gain, and even good sense.
Those choices didn’t keep the airline alive. But they shaped what the airline became and what Alaska now has to work with. Hawaiian did not survive as an independent airline, and it did not disappear, exactly.
What does Hawaiian’s legacy mean to you now that the airline itself is no longer on its own, and does seeing Alaska build on what Hawaiian started change how you look at either one?
Lead Photo © Beat of Hawaii attending the inaugural HNL-JFK route celebration in New York City at Grand Central Station.
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