Legalization Trends for Sports Betting in the U.S. 2023

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00:00I mean, we did have, I would say, a plethora of stories to talk about, as we always do

00:03throughout the year.

00:05I guess maybe the unfortunate part was not more states being legal.

00:08I think that's probably a good place to start, but you never know, 2025 is around the corner.

00:13Maybe some new states jump in the fray.

00:15I mean, yeah, as we've talked about throughout our time as a show, you know, the states that

00:22were going to get it done early got it done.

00:25And since then, you know, like you said, this year was very dry in terms of legislation

00:29action.

00:30Of course, Missouri ended up getting passed through on the ballot, so that was good for

00:34Missouri and I guess the industry as a whole.

00:38But the last couple of years have been really slow, to your point.

00:41The states, you know, the low-hanging fruit's gone.

00:43Now we're reaching up into the higher branches.

00:47And all these states that we're going to talk about here in a minute are just kind of been

00:51slowly chugging towards legalization eventually.

00:55I think a lot of states, there's a few, you know, like Utah, that will probably never

00:58or, you know, in 2100 or 2100, whatever you want to call it.

01:04But you know, the states that we're looking at really closely this year will be Minnesota.

01:09I mean, that's one that the last three years has come very close to passage.

01:15You know, the legislative makeup in that state is why we're kind of in this limbo area last

01:23year, or this year, earlier this year, we had the, you know, quote-unquote, you know,

01:28finish line deal that just barely couldn't get passed, which I've been told was, you

01:32know, kind of exaggerated.

01:34And it changes a little bit now because last year the Democrats controlled both chambers

01:39and the governor's mansion.

01:41And they want, of course, tribal exclusivity for sports betting, which the tribes are a

01:46very powerful Democratic force and, you know, have a lot of say up there.

01:50The Republicans want the horse racing tracks involved.

01:55Now the Republicans control the Senate or the House, and the Democrats control the Senate.

02:02So now there's this kind of split kind of chamber.

02:05So is it going to be this deal that almost got done this year again to roll into it?

02:11Or are we going to see just new power dynamics shift everything up there?

02:15So that's going to be really interesting to watch.

02:17I don't even know where to peg it right now.

02:20I mean, we've seen a couple bills filed.

02:23Everybody says they're willing to talk and compromise, but, you know, when push comes

02:27to shove in politics, that's a big leap.

02:30Down in Georgia, another one of these states that we're very close on the last couple years.

02:35Last year, the Senate kind of took the reins and said, hey, this is what we're doing.

02:38There was a good bipartisan push.

02:41But then a couple senators came in and said, whoa, we want a constitutional amendment.

02:44You can't just put it under the lottery.

02:47That made a couple senators drop off because, you know, that requires even more votes.

02:52And then it also requires a ballot initiative to get it over the edge.

02:57And so then this year now, you know, we've seen senators saying this has to start in

03:02the House before we consider it.

03:04But if they get it through, then we'll take it up.

03:06So Georgia has been a political mess, as we know.

03:10I don't know if it's a mess is the right word, but it's a political battleground.

03:14I mean, you just look at 2020 in the presidential election and then this year, which again,

03:19this year, it went from Biden in 2020 to Trump in 2024.

03:22And we've seen a sports betting sponsor come out with an op-ed who said, hey, the voters

03:26who swung this state back to Trump, they are big time sports betting demographics.

03:33We need to get this done because clearly the voters in our state want it.

03:37So those are the two states I think we're looking at closest to probably get something

03:41done.

03:42We haven't seen a bill filed yet in Mississippi to go online.

03:45They, of course, have in-person sports betting.

03:48The last couple of years, they've had bills filed to allow it to go statewide mobile.

03:53We haven't seen that filed yet, but I wouldn't be surprised.

03:56And it's always a good chance there because they already have sports betting.

04:00So that would be a big expansion, though, down there.

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