Will Minnesota Finally Legalize Sports Betting in 2025?

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00:00All right, so let's get started here and talk about maybe some potential changes in legislation

00:04here for the new year. We'll hit on Virginia, maybe an update in Texas as well as Oklahoma.

00:08But Pat, let's start off with Minnesota, a state that we've been waiting on for defending being

00:14legalized feels like a couple of years now. Progress made seems like every year and then

00:18we get to the finish line and nothing has happened. So will that change this year?

00:22You know, it's interesting. I think this will be a state we talk about probably the most

00:26between this and Georgia this year, maybe Texas included in there of states that could get it

00:31done. A lot of eyes on it in the industry. To your point, it's been three straight years of

00:37close, you know, and then you get to the end and it falls apart. Last year they said it came back

00:43together and there was a goal line deal that just ran out of time and they didn't get the boat on

00:47it. Well, now we're entering this year. The session officially starts next week, but today

00:53it just started about half an hour ago. There's a hearing in a Senate committee led by John Marty,

00:58who we've talked about before on the show, who has introduced a sports betting bill that is

01:03very focused on responsible gambling, almost overreaching to the point that the industry

01:08is saying, whoa, we don't like this. And my thought initially was, okay, he's bringing

01:13this bill to kind of start negotiating. Maybe that's a good sign that the opponents in the

01:18Senate are saying, oh, okay, this is going to get done, but we want to make sure we have plenty of

01:22protections in. Well, Senator Marty today is holding a hearing in his committee to listen

01:31to the ill effects of the economic, social, and I forget what the other, societal, economic, and

01:40what have you, harms of sports betting. And it is extensively and exclusively opponents of the

01:47industry. I've talked to a couple industry sources who are pretty displeased. They reached

01:52out to Senator Marty saying, hey, can we contribute to this? And they said, no, we're, this is just for

01:56the hearing of the harms of the industry. We've heard plenty about the legislation. We've heard

02:01plenty of the benefits and who can profit off of this. So now we need to hear about the harms that

02:07this industry will bring our state. And there's a couple of professors who have done studies on

02:12problem gambling. There's a couple of representatives from problem and responsible

02:17gambling groups from across the country who are testifying. Of course, as soon as I'm done here,

02:22I'll tune back into that and talk to you about it next week, kind of the findings of it. So it's

02:28still ongoing, of course, so I don't know all the details, but this is kind of a sign that there's

02:32going to potentially be even more pushback than in the past in Minnesota. I think, you know,

02:38as we've talked about in the past, it's a very bipartisan issue there. You know,

02:44the Republicans want the horse racing tracks, the Democrats only want tribal exclusivity. So there's

02:49the pushback there. And then, of course, there's people on both sides of both parties who don't

02:54want sports betting. And I think that kind of sect is going to push up and push a little harder

03:00against it, fearing a united front on the political party side. So this doesn't bode well,

03:08I don't think, and a few of the industry sources I've talked to are saying, you know, this is going

03:12to be kind of the same old story in Minnesota, maybe even worse than a couple of years past.

03:16So I'm still optimistic Minnesota gets it done this year because, you know, there's a chance

03:22that because of the split in the House, it's a full split 50-50, the Senate's even closer,

03:28that only bipartisan bills get done. And because this is such a bipartisan issue,

03:32maybe it is something they get done. But otherwise, I don't think a lot's going to

03:35happen in Minnesota and the industry doesn't seem too optimistic about it this year.