Three state lawmakers in Maryland said they’d recently met with Washington Redskins owner Dan Snyder, who asked them to allow legal sports gambling at a future stadium in the state, the Washington Post reported.
Maryland has yet to legalize sports betting, whereas the District of Columbia — considered the favorite to land the Redskins’ next stadium — has.
“They are interested in the sports betting stuff,” State Sen. Guy J. Guzzone, a Democrat, said. “It’s a long lineup of people who are interested.”
Snyder and the team continue to search for a new home for the Redskins, as their lease at FedEx Field in Landover, Maryland, is up after 2026. Two people who spoke to Snyder in Annapolis believed him to be suggesting he’d build a new stadium on the site of the current one.
In late 2018, Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan said he had been in negotiations for a land swap with the District in order to provide a parcel of land next to MGM National Harbor in Prince George’s County for the Redskins to build a new stadium. A few months later, however, Hogan withdrew his efforts in that plan.
Sports betting was made legal in the District by a December 2018 vote, but it’s yet to be actually implemented in a major way. Every major sports venue in the District has been approved for future gaming operations: Capital One Arena, Nationals Park, Audi Field and the Mystics’ Entertainment and Sports Arena in Southeast Washington.
Last year, Monumental Sports and Entertainment CEO Ted Leonsis announced plans to open a William Hill sportsbook inside Capital One Arena, which would be the first of its kind in the U.S.
It appears the Redskins also want in on the sports betting market, whether they return to the District — where they called home from 1937-1996 at Griffith Stadium, then RFK Stadium — or move elsewhere in the region.
Snyder “does see that as part of his vision if he is to remain in Maryland,” one lawmaker told the Post. “He is willing to build his own stadium, but he wants sports betting to be a part of that.”
• Adam Zielonka can be reached at azielonka@washingtontimes.com.
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