Happy Super Bowl Sunday, everybody.
It will be a happier one each year in Hawaii when the Legislature finally gets its Acts together on sports gambling — and the law-abiding people of our state, instead of criminals, benefit from gaming.
Did you know that a state with close to the same population as ours (and no, not Nevada) made around a million dollars that went to public education on Super Bowl bets last year?
That’s around a million more than in Hawaii, where that number is zero, and the juice (basically, the “handling charge”) on gambling goes to out-of-state bookies, or in-state illegal ones.
And that’s just one day of the year.
If you are against gambling, that’s fine. No one will force you to do it.
But don’t pretend that it’s not happening here illegally, and on a large scale. Mike Lambert, director of the state’s Department of Law Enforcement estimates a state gambling economy of between $700 million and $800 million.
Don’t fool yourself into thinking that the problems associated with gambling are not compounded because it is against the law.
Don’t ignore that people are killed at illegal gambling dens in Hawaii, like the man who was shot at a Kalihi house last February.
Are Hawaii and Utah right and every other state in the U.S. wrong about gambling? Are the 38 states with legalized sports betting all wrong?
I looked for states with around the same population as Hawaii’s 1.45 million and found New Hampshire, with 1.41 million. That’s the state cited above that benefited from $75 million in Super Bowl bets last year.
New Hampshire was a pioneer with the first state lottery in 1964. Sports gambling was legalized there in 2019, a year after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled the federal ban unconstitutional.
From December 2019 through June 2025, the state brought in $114.8 million in sports gambling revenue. There are several casinos in New Hampshire, including one that opened last year.
New Hampshire is one of the most peaceful states in the union, ranking 49th in violent crime in 2024. Statistics reflect no spike in crime, violent or otherwise, since sports gambling was legalized.
“In New Hampshire, when it came to stories about violence and illegal gambling, it felt like there were not as many of those stories as there were in Hawaii,” said Mike Cherry, the former Hawaii sportscaster from Maui who worked at WMUR in Manchester, N.H., when the sports gambling law was passed. “My ideas about legalized gambling changed when I lived in a state where I could see some of the benefits.”
One of them in New Hampshire is no state income tax.
“There was a debate when I was there about the addiction aspect,” said Cherry, who now hosts the morning news show at the NBC affiliate in Sacramento, Calif. “Phones are so much a part of everyday life, especially with kids, and if you can gamble out of boredom on your phone you could end up without any money.”
Hawaii State Sen. Glenn Wakai understands that, and that is why every bill he introduces proposing legalized gambling includes a percentage of revenue go to services for problem gambling.
“It’s like alcohol,” Wakai said. “You definitely can’t discount folks who have problems with alcohol, but you don’t penalize the vast majority.”
As usual, several bills addressing gambling are in the mix at the Legislature.
Senate Bill 3268 would establish a Hawaii Gaming Control Commission and authorize it to build a casino as part of the New Aloha Stadium Entertainment District. A similar bill last year that included a second casino at the Hawaii Convention Center did not pass.
Wakai estimates the one at NASED would cost $500 million to build, but would generate $250 million annually in licensing fees and taxes. He proposes 60% to the Department of Education, 25% to the Office of Hawaiian Affairs, 10% for administrative costs and 5% to social services for compulsive gamblers.
“I think there are substantial benefits,” Wakai said. “If we have a legitimate casino, why would I go to gamble illegally someplace where I could get killed? The best way to expose cockroaches is to turn on the light.”
