Sports betting is now a legal pastime in the Beaver State.
Operations began on Tuesday, August 27, with the Chinook Winds Casino booking the state’s first legal sports bet post-PAPSA. Retired Dallas Cowboys star and Super Bowl champion Ed “Too Tall” Jones placed the first wager, betting $5 on his former team to win the 2020 Super Bowl.
The launch makes Oregon the 12th jurisdiction to offer regulated sports betting services in the country.
The Siletz Tribe owned casino has been working on its Sports Wagering Lounge for the past one year. The sportsbook is powered by Las Vegas gaming company, Las Vegas Dissemination Company (LVDC).
The Director of Casino Operations at the property, Will Robertson, could not contain his excitement during the opening. In his address, Robertson said that the Siletz Tribe couldn’t be more thrilled to open the state’s first sportsbook. The Director also urged other Oregon casinos to add sports betting to their offering, adding that the Chinook Winds Casino would help out where it can.
Sports betting at the Chinook Winds Casino
Chinook Winds Casino is located in Lincoln City. The gaming venue opened its doors to sports betting enthusiasts at 9 am on Tuesday.
The sportsbook will be open between 8 am and 11 pm every day, and customers can view live matches inside the Sports Wagering Lounge area or in the Rogue River Steakhouse Lounge.
Before the launch, the facility hired and trained several ticket writers to assist gamblers with bet placement. For the experienced bettors, there are self-service wagering kiosks located just next to the Lounge.
The sportsbook at the Chinook Winds will accept bets from customers who are 21 years or older, and the available markets include popular American sports like baseball, football, hockey, basketball, soccer, golf, boxing, and many more. With regards to the available betting types, the selection varies from straight bets to futures and parlays.
The book will offer odds on both professional and collegiate sports, but mobile betting is not available at the moment.
Oregon Lottery plans to launch a sportsbook app soon.
For those who cannot travel to Lincoln City to place on-site wagers at the Chinook Winds Casino, a sports betting app by the Oregon State Lottery is in the works.
According to the Lottery spokesperson, Shelby Smith, the commission is preparing to launch a state-operated mobile sportsbook soon. However, Shelby confirmed that the rollout will not happen before the start of the football season as expected. The timeline given by the State Lottery spokesperson is two to three weeks into the season.
The mobile sportsbook will be powered by SBTech, and it will allow players to place bets from any location in Oregon. The only downside to this platform is that it will not offer collegiate sports when operations kick-off. Nevertheless, the Lottery has said that it will explore the possibility of providing wagers on college events in the future.
Oregon is one of four states that were allowed to offer sports betting on a limited scale under the 1992 PAPSA Rule. The jurisdiction offered state-run sportsbook services to its residents until 2006, but it stopped in 2007 due to threats from the NCAA.
Following the annulment of the PAPSA rule in May last year, the state Lottery announced that it would re-launch the market without the need for additional legislation.
In its initial statement, the organization revealed that it would introduce a state-wide online platform first before launching retail self-service kiosks across the country. The kiosks are expected to debut during the first quarter of 2020.
