Sports betting became legal in Maryland on November 3, 2020, when voters approved Question 2 on the state ballot. Retail sportsbooks opened just over a year later on December 9, 2021, and online and mobile betting followed on November 23, 2022. The gap between the vote and the first legal wager came from the regulatory work required to stand up a new industry, including a dedicated licensing commission and technical standards for mobile platforms.
Why Maryland Needed a Vote
A 2008 constitutional amendment requires voter approval for any expansion of commercial gaming in Maryland. That meant the General Assembly could not legalize sports wagering on its own. Lawmakers instead placed Question 2 on the November 2020 ballot, asking voters whether sports betting should be allowed at licensed facilities with the revenue directed toward public education. Voters approved it, clearing the constitutional hurdle.1Ballotpedia. Maryland Question 2, Sports Betting Measure (2020)
House Bill 940 Filled In the Details
The referendum authorized sports betting in principle, but the mechanics still had to be written into law. House Bill 940 did that. The General Assembly passed it in April 2021, and Governor Larry Hogan signed it on May 18, 2021.2Maryland General Assembly. Legislation – HB0940 – Maryland The law created multiple classes of retail licenses for casinos, horse-racing venues, bingo halls, and other qualifying businesses, along with up to 60 mobile sports wagering licenses.3Maryland General Assembly. Chapter 356 (House Bill 940)
HB 940 also created the Sports Wagering Application Review Commission (SWARC), a body tasked with reviewing applications and awarding licenses through a competitive process. The law directed SWARC to promote racial, ethnic, and gender diversity among licensees, which added time to the rollout.4Maryland Lottery and Gaming. Maryland Sports Wagering Day-to-day oversight sits with the Maryland Lottery and Gaming Control Agency.
Retail Sportsbooks Opened December 9, 2021
Governor Hogan placed the ceremonial first wager when retail betting went live on December 9, 2021. Five casino-based sportsbooks opened that day: Ocean Downs Casino, Live! Casino, Horseshoe Casino, Hollywood Casino, and MGM National Harbor. The casinos launched first because they already held gaming licenses and had the compliance infrastructure in place.
Non-casino locations followed over the next year. BetRivers opened a sportsbook inside Bingo World in Baltimore in August 2022, and Fanatics Sportsbook launched inside FedExField in January 2023.
Online Betting Launched November 23, 2022
Mobile sports betting went live on November 23, 2022, with seven licensed operators launching simultaneously. The roughly 11-month lag behind the retail launch came from SWARC’s diversity review and the technical certification each platform had to pass before going live.
To place an online bet, you must be physically inside Maryland’s borders. Licensed sportsbooks confirm this through geolocation technology in their apps, which uses GPS, Wi-Fi signals, and device-integrity checks to detect VPNs or spoofing. You also complete identity verification when you open an account, which generally requires a government-issued photo ID and proof of your current address. You must be at least 21 years old to place any sports wager in Maryland, in person or online.3Maryland General Assembly. Chapter 356 (House Bill 940)
One Limit on What You Can Bet
Maryland allows wagers on professional and college sports, with one notable restriction: player-specific prop bets on college athletes are banned. The Maryland Lottery and Gaming Control Agency put this prohibition in place to protect college athletes from harassment tied to their individual statistics. Game outcomes, point spreads, and totals on college sports are still permitted; bets on how many points or assists a specific college player will record are not.