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Is sports betting legal in Hawaii?
No, and Hawaii's restrictions run considerably deeper than sports betting alone.
- Hawaii and Utah are the only two U.S. states with an absolute prohibition on all forms of commercial gambling - no state lottery, no casinos, and until very recently, not even daily fantasy sports.
- Hawaii Attorney General Doug Chin issued a formal opinion in January 2016 concluding that DFS contests constitute illegal gambling under state law, a ruling that led both DraftKings and FanDuel to formally cease operations and withdraw from Hawaii entirely - a genuinely distinctive detail, since daily fantasy sports remains a legal fallback option in nearly every other state without regulated sports betting.
Despite that uniquely restrictive baseline, Hawaii came closer to legalizing sports betting in 2025 than almost any other holdout state has come anywhere in the country.
- House Bill 1308 - which would have authorized online-only sports wagering with no retail or casino component, alongside a companion Problem Gambling Prevention and Treatment Special Fund administered by the state's Department of Health - actually passed both the Hawaii House and Senate in 2025, a first in state history for any gambling-related bill.
- Hawaii law requires both chambers to pass identical bill language before a measure can become law, though, and lawmakers on the joint conference committee failed to reconcile differences between the House and Senate versions - disagreements over tax rates, licensing fees, and the number of permitted operators - before the legislative session's May 2 deadline.
- The bill died there, just short of the finish line, despite having already cleared both full chambers.
Hawaii status snapshot
- ⛔No regulated sportsbookHawaii has no regulated online or retail sportsbook.
- 🌺No commercial gambling marketHawaii also has no state lottery or commercial casino market.
- 📄HB 1308 reached both chambersThe 2025 proposal passed the House and Senate but did not emerge from conference in final form.
- 📱Mobile-only proposalsRecent proposals described in the source focus on statewide online wagering rather than retail sportsbooks.
| Topic | Current position | What it means |
|---|---|---|
| Current status | Not legal | No regulated online or retail sports wagering market. |
| 2025 proposal | HB 1308 | Passed both chambers but did not become law after conference negotiations. |
| 2026 follow-up | HB 2570 | Described as a six-license mobile framework with a 15% tax. |
| Retail sportsbooks | Not proposed in the recent framework | The recent bills described on this page are online-only. |
| Daily fantasy sports | Not legal under the status described here | The 2016 attorney general opinion is discussed above. |
| Online casino | Not legal | No regulated online casino market is described. |
The path to legalization
Had HB 1308 survived that final reconciliation step, Hawaii would have become the 40th state to legalize sports betting and the 32nd to allow genuinely statewide mobile wagering, with the first licensed sportsbooks launching no later than January 1, 2026. The bill also faced genuine institutional opposition along the way: Hawaii's own Attorney General's office and several anti-gambling advocacy groups publicly opposed the measure, a notably different dynamic than most other states, where opposition tends to come from individual legislators rather than the state's own top legal office.
Momentum carried into the 2026 session in a new form: House Bill 2570 proposed a similar online-only framework, authorizing six mobile sportsbook licenses at a 15% tax rate on gross gaming revenue, with regulatory oversight shifted to the state's Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs rather than the agency named in earlier versions.
- HB 2570 cleared a key House committee vote in June 2026, with lawmakers citing an estimated $55 million to $65 million in annual tax revenue within three years of a successful launch.
- But broader 2026 gambling-expansion efforts in Hawaii - including separate proposals for casinos, a state lottery, cruise-ship gambling, and prediction markets - all stalled at various committee deadlines that same year, and Hawaii remained, as of the most recent reporting, without any form of legal gambling.
Hawaii's situation is genuinely unusual among Tier 5 holdout states: unlike Alabama or Texas, where a constitutional supermajority requirement is the structural bar, Hawaii's obstacle is purely a matter of ordinary legislative process - getting the House and Senate to agree on identical final language before a hard annual deadline. HB 1308's 2025 near-miss proved that's genuinely achievable; whether HB 2570 or a future successor can actually close that same gap remains the open question heading into future sessions.
Responsible gambling resources
Because Hawaii has no regulated sports betting market, there is no state sportsbook regulator or licensed-operator self-exclusion program to reference.
- Hawaii's 2025 near-miss bill specifically included a dedicated Problem Gambling Prevention and Treatment Special Fund under the Department of Health, a sign lawmakers have already begun planning responsible-gambling infrastructure ahead of any eventual launch.
- If you're experiencing gambling-related harm from any source right now, including unregulated offshore platforms, which carry no Hawaii consumer protections, 1-800-522-4700 is a free, confidential helpline available to anyone in Hawaii concerned about their own gambling or someone else's.
FAQ
Is sports betting legal in Hawaii?
No. Hawaii is one of only two states, along with Utah, with no legal gambling of any kind - no lottery, no casinos, and no sports betting.
What happened to Hawaii's 2025 sports betting bill?
House Bill 1308 passed both the House and Senate, a first in Hawaii history, but died when a joint conference committee couldn't reconcile the final House and Senate versions before the May 2, 2025 deadline.
Can I use daily fantasy sports in Hawaii?
No. Hawaii's Attorney General ruled DFS contests illegal gambling in 2016, and both DraftKings and FanDuel withdrew from the state entirely as a result.
What is House Bill 2570?
A 2026 follow-up to HB 1308 that would authorize six mobile sportsbook licenses at a 15% tax rate. It cleared a key House committee in June 2026 but had not passed into law as of the most recent reporting.
When could Hawaii legalize sports betting?
No confident timeline exists, though HB 1308's 2025 near-miss shows Hawaii can get remarkably close. Broader 2026 gambling-expansion bills, including HB 2570, stalled at various committee stages that year.