Vermont Betting

Vermont legalised sports betting in 2023 and took an approach that sits between the lottery monopolies of neighbouring New Hampshire and the open licensing markets further south. The state does not license whoever qualifies, and it does not run the book itself through a single contractor either. It contracts with a small, statutorily bounded number of operators, chosen by competitive bid, and every one of them is mobile-only.

Vermont Online Sportsbooks

The authority is held by the Department of Liquor and Lottery, and the operating chapter opens with a single line of authorisation followed immediately by the number that defines the market:

"(a) The Department is authorized to operate sports wagering within the State. (b)(1) The Commissioner shall negotiate and contract to authorize a minimum of two but not more than six operators to operate a sportsbook in Vermont through a mobile sports wagering platform." — 31 V.S.A. § 1302

Two floors and six ceilings, which is unusual: most states cap the market or leave it open, but few set a minimum. The chapter then qualifies even that floor. If the bidding does not produce enough credible bids, the Department may "decline to authorize any operators to operate a sportsbook" or "authorize a single operator to conduct a sportsbook" instead, so the statutory minimum of two is a target rather than a guarantee.

Note the words "through a mobile sports wagering platform". Vermont's authorisation is for mobile wagering, and there is no statutory route to a retail sportsbook counter. This is an app-only jurisdiction by design.

Vermont Sports Betting Sites and How Operators Are Chosen

Vermont does not run a licence application window in the ordinary sense. It runs a procurement:

"The Commissioner shall select operators through a competitive bidding process. It is the intent of the General Assembly that the Department shall be guided by and prioritize the following when conducting the competitive bidding process, selecting operators, and structuring agreements with the operators: (1) maximizing revenues to the State; (2) reducing the illegal market and converting wagerers to the legal market; and (3) protecting Vermonters from problem gambling." — 31 V.S.A. § 1320(a)

Bidders must disclose the percentage of adjusted gross sports wagering revenue they will pay the state, how many individually branded websites they propose to run, their responsible gaming plan, every jurisdiction in which they are already authorised, their player acquisition and advertising model including how they will convert customers away from illegal channels, their implementation timetable and their integrity monitoring arrangements. A selected operator pays a fee of 550,000 dollars, reassessed no more than once in any three-year period, and must return at least 20 per cent of adjusted gross sports wagering revenue to the Department. Criminal background checks on principals and controlling individuals are part of the process, run through fingerprint-based state, out-of-state and federal records or an approved third-party equivalent.

Because the operators are contracted rather than licensed on application, the Department's sports wagering pages are the authoritative record of who is authorised to take a Vermont wager. The chapter reinforces the point procedurally: when the Board adopts or amends the procedures governing sportsbooks it must publish the proposal on the Department's website, notify all operators, allow at least 30 days for comment and hold at least two public hearings.

The Minimum Age Is 21

Vermont sets the threshold at 21 and does it twice over. The definitions make anyone younger a prohibited sports bettor — "'Prohibited sports bettor' means: … (H) any person under 21 years of age" — and the Department's operating duties require "[a]ge verification measures to be undertaken to block access to and prevent sports wagers by persons under 21 years of age". Identity verification is specified alongside it, through secure online databases or examination of photo identification together with a contemporaneous photograph of the person.

Location is handled the same way as in most mobile states: wagers "must be initiated and received within the State of Vermont and may not be intentionally routed outside the State", with incidental intermediate routing expressly disregarded. Sports governing bodies and colleges may ask the Department to restrict or exclude wagering on particular events, and the Department may grant such requests to protect event integrity or public confidence. The Department also approves wager types and event categories before an operator may offer them, and may only approve events with verifiable outcomes generated by reliable and independent processes.

Horse Racing in Vermont

There is no lawful horse-race betting in Vermont, online or otherwise, and the reason is not an omission but a deletion. The entire horse racing chapter was removed from the statute book:

"31 V.S.A. §§ 601-642. Repealed. 2019, No. 128 (Adj. Sess.), § 15." — Vermont General Assembly

With the racing chapter repealed there is no pari-mutuel licence, no simulcast permission and no advance deposit wagering regime to be licensed under. That is why this page records horse racing as prohibited. A national racebook that accepts an account wager from a Vermont address is not doing so under any Vermont authorisation, because Vermont has repealed the law that would have provided one.

Prediction Markets

Event-contract platforms are recorded on this page as a grey market. Vermont's statute creates exactly one lawful channel for a wager on a sporting event: a sportsbook operated by a Department-contracted operator through a mobile platform, with wager types pre-approved by the Department. A federally designated exchange holds no such contract, so it sits outside the chapter rather than within it. Nothing quoted on this page shows the Department of Liquor and Lottery or the Attorney General publishing a position on those platforms, and this page does not suggest Vermont has authorised them.

Vermont Sports Betting Laws

The chapter was added by Act 63 of 2023, effective 14 June 2023, and the standards it imposes on operators are set by Board procedure rather than by conventional rulemaking — procedures adopted this way "shall have the force of law and be binding on all persons who play or offer sports wagering within the State". Those procedures must cover computer system security, including third-party security testing, unique wager identification, prevention of past posting, system redundancy and integration with an independent control system; wagering systems meeting or exceeding the GLI-33 event wagering standard; house rules on settlement, schedule changes, odds changes, voided bets and late bets; accounting controls with an annual audit; internal control standards; and minimum cash reserves for each operator.

Responsible Gambling in Vermont

Vermont's requirements here are more prescriptive than most. Each operator must file an annual responsible gaming plan with both the Department and the Department of Mental Health, and submit that plan to independent third-party review at least every five years. Each platform must prevent more than one account per person, prevent credit cards being used to fund an account or place wagers, allow deposit and daily spending limits, operate a statewide voluntary self-exclusion process that covers all authorised operators, display a telephone number for problem gambling information, show periodic pop-up messages about time spent, and provide a means to initiate a break in play. The Department of Mental Health administers the state's Problem Gambling Program and reports annually to the General Assembly on the impact of sports wagering on problem gambling. The public-facing helpline is published at vtgamblinghelp.org, a site "managed by The Institute for Consumer Health and funded by the Vermont Department of Mental Health through support from the Vermont Department of Liquor and Lottery", which tells readers to "Call 1-800-GAMBLER".