Four Minnesota lawmakers have sponsored another measure to bring mobile sports betting to the North Star State, but it remains to be seen if this latest endeavor will be successful where all others have failed.
Another Bite at the Apple
Republican Senator Jeremy Miller has been down this road before without success, but he now has bipartisan support for his latest effort to pass mobile sports betting legislation. Miller and three other senators, including DFL Senator Nick Frentz as well as fellow Republican Senators Eric Pratt and Julia Coleman, have sponsored the latest sports betting iteration, S.F. 4139.
Minnesota is one of only 11 states that has no form of sports betting, retail or mobile. However, like many previous attempts to legalize and license sports betting, S.F. 4139 grants exclusivity to the state’s Native American gaming tribes.
Therefore, it is not surprising that Andy Platto, the executive director of the pro-sports betting Minnesota Indian Gaming Association (MIGA), voiced his full-throated support for a sports betting bill at the Indian Gaming Association’s mid-year conference last September.
The sports betting proposal being considered would contain the following:
- A maximum of 11 mobile sportsbooks regulated by the state
- Net revenue would be taxed at 22%
- Generated tax revenue would be distributed to charitable gambling interests, the horse racing industry, tribes, and responsible gambling programs, among other entities
- College prop bets would be banned, limiting push notifications, excluding prediction markets from regulation, and requiring studies on gambling activity and related harms are also included in the legislation.
- Licenses would be limited to only those tribes that operate “Class III gaming” at a land-based casino in Minnesota and could partner with one licensed mobile sports betting platform provider.
- Retail sports betting would also be allowed at the state’s tribal casinos.
Chances of Success Remain Questionable
Minnesota’s tribal nations support this latest effort, with MIGA executive director Andy Platto commenting, “We continue to support legal sports wagering legislation, including the recent version introduced by a bipartisan coalition of senators.”
“Minnesota consumers deserve to be protected, and only regulated gaming options should be allowed to operate in the state,” Platto added in a statement last week.
The increasingly popular sports prediction markets currently offering sports betting “contracts” in all 50 states under the federal authority of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission have given the effort increased urgency as Minnesota remains the only Midwestern state that has yet to pass sports betting legislation.
In order to placate those legislators who are apprehensive about the deleterious effects on sports betting, the language of the bill stipulates a report must be commissioned “on the impact of sports betting on the prevalence of gambling disorders, suicide related to gambling disorders, and risks to youth of developing gambling disorders, based on any research available on how sports betting has impacted these problems in jurisdictions where sports betting is occurring.“
However, the bill comes at a tenuous time when Minnesota is wrestling with fraud involving government services that has put it under the national spotlight and urgent attempts to impose firearms restrictions following last year’s assassination of former House Speaker Melissa Hortman.
DFL House Leader Zack Stephenson recently stated that sports betting is “issue No. 27 on the agenda this year,” in light of the other, seemingly more pressing concerns for the legislature.
