Kentucky residents create over 180k interstate betting accounts

Geolocation and anti-fraud company GeoComply has revealed that over 180,000 accounts with legal sportsbooks have been created by Kentucky residents since September, despite the fact that sports wagering has not been legalized in the state yet.

Those figures underline why most state legislators propose the legalization of sports betting in Kentucky. Rep. Michael Meredith (R-Oakland) has already said he will be filing a sports betting bill soon.

GeoComply ensures that citizens from states where wagering is not permitted cannot place bets in other, regulated jurisdictions. The company, which is operating in Ohio, has already reported that about 5 million of the geolocation transactions that were made on these sports betting sites came from residents of that state. GeoComply already restricts bettors in Kentucky from placing wagers remotely, although they can view odds, make deposits, and withdraw funds from their accounts when in their home state.

GeoComply’s senior vice president for government and public affairs, John Pappas, said that Kentuckians are not only utilizing sportsbooks from neighboring states, but a few of them also patronize illegal sports betting operators within the state.

“When Kentuckians must travel to place a bet, states like Ohio benefit from the Commonwealth’s current sports betting prohibition,” Pappas said.

“Even worse, when residents can’t bet online in Kentucky, they might turn to unregulated, offshore websites with zero consumer protections. We are hopeful that this is the year that lawmakers pass a law that protects Kentucky consumers and delivers new tax revenues from regulated online betting.”

Kentucky is surrounded by seven states: Ohio, Indiana, Virginia, West Virginia, Tennessee, Missouri, and Illinois. Out of those, only Missouri has yet to legalize sports betting.

GeoComply also reported that it blocked over 500,000 geolocation transactions from Kentuckians across 41,000 unique accounts in April last year.

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