Hawaii is a great place for a holiday, but not for betting.
When the Supreme Court struck down PASPA (which stopped anybody outside Nevada betting legally on sports) in 2018, it gave all states the chance to legalize sports betting.
For ‘The Aloha State’ (population of 1.4million in 2020), any notion of heading to a casino to bet with a sportsbook, or placing a bet on your cellphone, is a million miles away. As an island, the options for betting legally nearby are also extremely limited!
Is sports betting legal in Hawaii?
Sports betting is not legal in the state of Hawaii. In fact, the state has no legal forms of betting of any kind. That means there are no casinos, there is no state lottery and definitely no sports betting.
With no retail set-up at all, in-person betting at licensed sportsbooks would be pretty tough to set up. If Hawaii does look at sports betting again, online and mobile would be the simplest rollout.
There have been attempts to put forward sports betting legislationg – in 2019 and 2020 – but none of those attempts found much support.
Legal sports betting near Hawaii
Like we said, the fact Hawaii is an island state limits the options severely! Remember that legal sports betting in the U.S. is about your physical location, not where you live.
Hawaii is a long way from its closest neighboring state Alaska, and even further from California. And neither of those offer legal sports betting, so for the time being the only real option available is the long flight to Nevada and Las Vegas. You can fly direct from Honolulu, with flight time of a little over five hours.
Are offshore sportsbooks legal in Hawaii?
If you’re a resident of Hawaii, you are literally out on an island from a sports betting perspective. So it’s easy to see why you might be tempted by the lure of offshore sportsbooks.
Remember though, offshore sportsbooks cannot legally take bets in the U.S. so we strongly advise you not to use them.