Kentucky and North Dakota are Teeing Up Sports Betting Legislation

With the start of a new year, there promises to be even more states looking to join the ranks of states that have legalized sports betting for their residents. Among the states that are on the brink of such activities are Kentucky and North Dakota. Let’s take a look at the current sports betting legislation that is on the table in these two states.

A Second Sports Betting Bill Appears on the Floor of Congress in Kentucky

Late last year, former Kentucky Rep. Adam Koenig was able to get sports betting legislation approved by the House by a vote of 58-30. Unfortunately, the bill did meet opposition in the Kentucky Senate and was killed. With Koenig losing his reelection bid in November of last year, the Republicans were looking for a new advocate to lead the way with new sports betting legislation.

As a sidebar, Democrats took the unusual step of refiling Koenig’s bill as a means of showing sports betting legislation support on behalf of the Democrat party. It might also be because they knew a new sports betting champion was about to step forward with new legislation.

It turns out that the Republican’s efforts to bring sports betting to the fine people of Kentucky have been placed in the hands of Rep. Michael Meredith. Meredith recently told the PlayUSA publication that,

“We’re about a week or two from finishing drafting the bill. We’re negotiating and talking with the Senate, with House Democrats, our caucus, and folks on the industry side to try to make this as right as it can be before we unveil something.”

Meredith has made clear that his new bill will be crafted to address the Senate’s concerns.

North Dakota Online Sports Betting Passes House, Heads to Senate

Recently, House Concurrent Resolution 3002 was introduced to the North Dakota House by State Rep. Greg Stemen. As was highly anticipated, the online sports betting bill passed with strong support on Thursday, January 13, 2023. Now, the bill will be sent to the Senate where it will be scrutinized by a Senate body that has not yet thrown its support behind any kind of sports betting legislation.

Should the bill get past the Senate, it would be introduced to North Dakota residents in the form of a ballot initiative in November 0f 2023. If the bill doesn’t pass through the Senate, there would still be plenty of time remaining to craft something upon which everyone can agree.

In HCR 3002, residents would be permitted to place online/mobile sports bets through the U.S, sports betting operators. These would be operators that are operating independently or through partnerships with one of the state’s retail casinos being run by the strong North Dakota Indian Nation. If the bill does pass, it could bring the state approximately $3.5 million in sports betting revenue at a tax rate of 10%. In most states, that is not much but in a state with approximately 138,000 gambling enthusiasts, that’s a tidy sum.

Note: Retail face-to-face sports betting is already available through retail casinos.