Push to Legalize Sports Gambling Announced at State Capitol Thursday

(KNSI) — The next session of the Minnesota Legislature doesn’t start until January 31st, but one state representative is already announcing what he wants the House Commerce Committee to take up: Legalized sports betting.

Representative Zach Stephenson, who chairs the committee which oversees gaming, says just because we don’t have legalized sports betting in Minnesota doesn’t mean it’s not already happening in Minnesota, “It just means that people who want to engage in sports betting do sell on the black and gray markets relying on shady websites or digital workarounds to do what our neighbors in Wisconsin, Iowa, North Dakota and South Dakota can all do safely and legally isn’t right. It isn’t good public policy.”

Legalizing sports betting will likely be a tough sell, given the gaming compacts between the state and Minnesota’s tribal communities. The compacts were signed in perpetuity, which means they cannot be renegotiated unless both sides agree to do so.

Stephenson says he knows there is much work to do before legalized sports betting becomes legal here, adding, “We need to consult on a government to government basis with Minnesota sovereign tribal nations. We also need to listen and work with our professional sports teams experts in problem gaming and many others as we develop a Minnesota specific plan.”

Since the United States Supreme Court struck down the federal ban on state authorization of sports betting in 2018, 29 states and Washington D.C. offer sports betting. Three others have legalized it but are not in operation yet.

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