Category
🥇
SportsTranscript
00:00 (upbeat music)
00:02 - Okay, so a Senate hearing
00:07 on the future of sports betting in Minnesota.
00:10 I know that when you saw that pop up on your radar, Pat,
00:13 you hit click, and I'm sure you paid attention
00:16 to see what the future could potentially hold.
00:18 Learn anything new yesterday?
00:20 - A little bit.
00:21 I mean, so now we've had two hearings in Minnesota,
00:24 which you know well that it has been my top state
00:28 to pass two years in a row,
00:29 and of course I had to eat crow last year on that.
00:32 But both of these hearings have given us
00:35 a little bit of insight into how the lawmakers
00:38 are feeling about this.
00:40 The House hearing earlier, or I guess last month,
00:44 changed where money is appropriated
00:47 from sports betting funds,
00:50 and it's to problem gambling support,
00:53 to strengthen that and bolster both the national programs
00:56 and the state level programs.
00:58 Well, yesterday in the Senate, there were some additions
01:00 added to, again, enhance consumer protections
01:05 around problem gaming, and one of those
01:07 was to remove in-game betting,
01:09 or to prohibit in-game betting.
01:11 So that'll be out.
01:12 It also includes a big helpline budget
01:18 and a few other key protections
01:22 that one of the sponsors, Senator Matt Klein,
01:25 wants to ensure that this is, he said,
01:28 he wants it to be the safest state for consumers
01:31 as it pertains to sports betting.
01:33 And so that was the kind of action yesterday.
01:36 A few other amendments were struck down or withdrawn,
01:40 including a ban on collegiate sports betting,
01:43 which of course would basically cut revenue in half,
01:46 by revenue in half, essentially,
01:48 and also not really, as Klein said,
01:51 not really do any good in preventing problem gambling
01:55 'cause people can find that betting elsewhere.
01:57 So that was the development yesterday.
02:01 And so we're seeing a fine-tuning of this bill,
02:05 which is still being negotiated on the side
02:08 between the horse racing tracks and the tribes.
02:10 The tribes get exclusivity right now
02:14 because they are strong partners
02:15 of the Democrat Farmer Labor Party,
02:18 and they control both chambers and the governor's mansion.
02:20 So this is kind of, they hold the power.
02:23 They've killed sports betting legislation in the past,
02:25 but the Republicans, which, you know,
02:27 you still need bipartisan support
02:29 to pass any sports betting bill in pretty much any state,
02:32 they want the struggling horse racing industry
02:35 to have some involvement.
02:36 So we're seeing this negotiation kind of play out.
02:40 Yesterday, Klein said, conversations are still being had.
02:43 So I'm still optimistic that some sort of middle ground
02:48 will be found, a compromise will be struck,
02:51 and we'll see sports betting in Minnesota
02:53 potentially later this year.
02:55 But again, you know, those conversations
02:57 have to be successful, and that's, they're ongoing,
03:00 so we don't know the outcome right now.
03:02 (upbeat music)
03:04 [MUSIC]