Minnesota's Sports Betting Debate: Positives vs. Opposition

SportsGrid

Watch Minnesota's Sports Betting Debate: Positives vs. Opposition - SportsGrid on Dailymotion

Transcript

00:00Now, I know Minnesota is another one of those states, Sam, Pat Evans was on earlier in the

00:04week and said we have to keep a close eye out on them, but naturally, first they're

00:08going to hear the positives, and then there's going to be some oppositions coming in the

00:12way of Minnesota.

00:13Tell us more what that may look like.

00:16Yeah, Minnesota is another one of those states still left on the board, obviously, a state

00:20we've talked a lot about in the past, potentially legalizing sports betting, and it's actually

00:24gotten pretty close, unlike Alabama.

00:26There, it's been sort of tribal efforts that have kind of been a roadblock, but it seems

00:31to, as you alluded to, Craig, that there are new, maybe even bigger roadblocks popping

00:35up.

00:36This week, they had one of the first hearings that I've ever heard a state have that hasn't

00:41had sports betting, where they focused solely on the negatives of sports betting.

00:45You know, Congress, the U.S. Congress, had a similar hearing pretty recently, and that

00:50kind of seems to be trickling down to the states a little bit, some of that momentum

00:54kind of against the industry, kind of looking at it from that point of view.

00:58But at this hearing, you had a bunch of different folks who are not in the industry, a bunch

01:03of people who are pretty much against sports betting testifying ahead of their session.

01:09One of them, you know, Les Bernal, who's the national director of the Stop Predatory Gambling

01:14Campaign.

01:15It was pretty vocal about what he says is a phony narrative that the legal industry

01:20has been pushing.

01:21A lot of the times, the industry will say legalizing it will help bring it out of the

01:24shadows and help combat the illegal industry.

01:27While he said that's true, it actually does more harm when you legalize it than illegal

01:33gambling goes up as well.

01:35You had another witness who is the lawyer of the famous ex-Jaguars employee who admitted

01:41stealing $22 million from the team to play, a lot of it, play fantasy sports on FanDuel.

01:48He spoke out against the industry.

01:50No surprise there.

01:51They're suing FanDuel trying to make them culpable for sort of all the money that he

01:55took. He said, you know, the industry is predatory.

01:58They send these specific offers and free bets to certain people.

02:03They want to bet more.

02:04So finally, one proponent of sports betting did speak up, though nobody from the legal

02:09industry was invited.

02:11Pat was reporting that they had kind of been shut out of this whole process.

02:14But finally, a senator who wants sports betting, he's an author of one of several bills

02:20that could be heard in the legislature when it kicks off.

02:21He spoke up and said, listen, the simple fact is, you know, we've heard the testimony

02:26against it, but Minnesotans want it.

02:28And it's kind of our duty as lawmakers to represent the people and what they want.

02:33There is a poll that came out pretty recently that said that overwhelming majority of

02:37Minnesotans want it and that most will not probably fall into the problem gambling

02:42category. Now, whether that is true or not, you'd have to let it play out.

02:47But so while there does seem to be a lot of kind of resistance to it, there still is a

02:52big, strong growing swing of it.

02:54And I think this is just going to be one of those things you see now in states.

02:57Now we've had sports betting for so long that we're going to start hearing about all the

03:00negatives, too, during the legal process.

Category

Transcript

Recommended