Hawaii Betting

There is no legal sports betting in Hawaii, online or in person, and Hawaii is one of only two states where essentially nothing else is lawful either. The prohibition is statutory rather than constitutional, and that distinction matters a great deal: a bill alone could lift it, and in 2025 one passed both chambers before dying in conference. Participating in gambling is a misdemeanour; promoting it is a felony. The only exception in the law is private social gambling, and even that is framed as a defence to prosecution rather than as a permission.

The Statute

The offence itself is two sentences long.

"§712-1223 Gambling. (1) A person commits the offense of gambling if the person knowingly participates in any gambling activity. (2) Gambling is a misdemeanor." — HRS §712-1223

Operating is treated far more seriously, and the thresholds are specific. Section 712-1221 provides that a person commits promoting gambling in the first degree by, among other things, "Engaging in bookmaking to the extent that the person receives or accepts in any seven-day period more than five bets totaling more than $500", and that "Promoting gambling in the first degree is a class B felony." Section 712-1222 catches everything below that line: a person who "negligently advances or profits from gambling activity" commits promoting gambling in the second degree, which "is a class C felony". The grading runs the opposite way to most states' — in Hawaii the player faces a misdemeanour and the operator a felony.

The definitions in §712-1220 are what make a sportsbook or an event contract fit. Gambling is staking or risking something of value "upon the outcome of a contest of chance or a future contingent event not under his control or influence", and bookmaking is "advancing gambling activity by accepting bets from members of the public upon the outcomes of future contingent events". The same section carves out genuine commerce: gambling "does not include bona fide business transactions valid under the law of contracts, including but not limited to contracts for the purchase or sale at a future date of securities or commodities, and agreements to compensate for loss caused by the happening of chance". Note also that the definition of "advance gambling activity" carries a repeal-and-reenactment date of 1 July 2029 under Act 249 of 2024, so that wording is not permanent.

What Is Lawful

Social gambling, and nothing else. Section 712-1231(a) defines it by six conditions that must all be present at once:

"(a) Definition. 'Social gambling' means gambling in which all of the following conditions are present: (1) Players compete on equal terms with each other; and (2) No player receives, or becomes entitled to receive, anything of value or any profit, directly or indirectly, other than the player's personal gambling winnings; and (3) No other person, corporation, unincorporated association, or entity receives or becomes entitled to receive, anything of value or any profit, directly or indirectly, from any source… and (4) It is not conducted or played in or at a hotel, motel, bar, nightclub, cocktail lounge, restaurant, massage parlor, billiard parlor, or any business establishment of any kind, public parks, public buildings, public beaches, school grounds, churches or any other public area; and (5) None of the players is below the age of majority; and (6) The gambling activity is not bookmaking." — HRS §712-1231

Condition (6) excludes exactly what a sportsbook does, and condition (4) rules out anything resembling a commercial venue. Subsection (b) confirms the provision operates only as "the affirmative defense that the gambling activity in question was a social gambling game" in a prosecution under the gambling sections — it is a shield, not a licence.

Part III of chapter 712 contains no authorisation for a lottery, for pari-mutuel racing or for charitable gaming; §712-1231 is the only exception in the Part, and terms such as lottery and mutuel appear there only as elements of an offence. No Hawaii statute, Attorney General opinion or legislative report stating that position in so many words could be located for this page, so read it as what the chapter shows rather than as an official declaration. Because nothing is authorised, Hawaii has no gambling regulator and no statutory minimum betting age. The only age anywhere in the Part is the social-gambling condition that "None of the players is below the age of majority".

How Close HB 1308 Came

HB 1308 of 2025 would have created a regulated market from scratch. Its own description reads: "Allows for the regulation of sports wagering by the Department of Law Enforcement. Establishes licensing requirements for sports wagering operators and sports wagering suppliers. Establishes a general excise tax to be levied on sports wagering operator licenses. Establishes the Problem Gambling Prevention and Treatment Special Fund to be administered and expended by the Department of Health." The bill would have set the age at 21: "A person placing a wager shall be at least twenty-one years of age."

Its history is the useful part, because it shows how close a statute-only state can get. The House passed it on third reading as amended on 4 March 2025 and sent it across. The Senate passed it on third reading as amended on 8 April 2025 by 15 ayes to 10 noes. On 10 April 2025 the House disagreed with the Senate's amendments, which sent the bill to conference, and conference never produced a report. The measure was carried over to the 2026 regular session on 8 December 2025. Then both chambers let go of it: the Senate conferees were discharged on 20 March 2026 and the House conferees on 1 April 2026, with notice of the latter received on 2 April. The measure's enactment field is blank. It never became law, and no successor has replaced it on this page's evidence.

A committee report on the bill is worth quoting for what the legislature itself concluded about the current state of affairs: "Your Committee finds that sports wagering is widespread in the State through an unregulated, illegal market." The same report records that testimony in support came from BetMGM, DraftKings, the Sports Betting Alliance, the Iron Workers Stabilization Fund and one individual, and that the Honolulu Police Department, Boyd Gaming and one individual testified against.

Prediction Markets

No Hawaii action could be found. A site search of the Attorney General's website for Kalshi returned, verbatim, "Your search found 0 hits.", and a federal docket search for the District of Hawaii returned no cases. On the face of §712-1220 a sports event contract looks like bookmaking, and offering one would be promoting gambling — a felony — but no Hawaii authority has said so on the record, and nothing has been enforced. That combination is what the grey-market label records: no permission, and no action either.

Responsible Gambling

Hawaii funds nothing that could be sourced. A site search of the Department of Health returned no problem-gambling page and no helpline, and the clearest evidence that no state programme exists is that HB 1308 proposed to create one from scratch, establishing a "Problem Gambling Prevention and Treatment Special Fund to be administered and expended by the Department of Health". That fund died with the bill, so there is no Hawaii state service to name here.