“I just don’t feel the Legislature is ready to go all out and pass a casino bill,” Mizuno said. House Vice Speaker John Mizuno, who is proposing the Waikiki casino, said gambling measures are unlikely to pass since 2022 is an election year that sees all 76 seats in the Legislature up for reelection.

This year, several lawmakers are back with measures to allow a single casino in Waikiki, to regulate online sports betting and online fantasy sports games, and to legalize a state-run lottery. But supporters are keeping the issue on life support, hoping to chip away at the resistance by persuading people that heavily regulated gambling can be a healthy source of revenue. Ultimately, all the proposals failed and Hawaii remains one of two states that prohibit all forms of gambling.

The state Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism in 1995 estimated that shipboard gaming could generate between $47 million and $104 million in tax revenues for the state.įor horse racing, the department extolled the immediate benefits for the construction industry should Hawaii decide to build a racetrack.Ī follow-up study on casino entertainment found that six “cruising” casinos could generate $569 million in visitor spending totaling $105 million in state revenues if the casinos were taxed at a rate of 15%. The Legislature has ordered studies on all those forms of gambling.

Hawaii has considered many gambling proposals over the last three decades, ranging from a lottery to floating casinos in Honolulu Harbor. The Legislature also weighed legalizing gambling on cruise ships and betting on horses at a 20,000 seat racetrack.Īll came with the promise of lucrative revenues for their operators and a windfall of cash for the state. Editors Note: This is the latest installment of an ongoing series, “Rolling the Dice,” which is taking a deeper look at the perennial question of whether gambling should be legalized in Hawaii.

States that allow casino gambling