Kentucky senators are set to discuss the legalization of sports betting on Wednesday and Thursday of this week in a bid to make a final decision prior to the closing of the legislative session on Thursday evening.
during March, Kentuckians attempted to access out-of-state sports betting platforms 530,000 times
HB 606 passed through the House of Representatives in late March by a vote of 58-30 and will now go before the Senate following two readings as bill sponsor Rep. Adam Koenig tries to drum up enough support for the legislation.
Senate Majority Leader Damon Thayer told local news WLKY that the bill was facing an uphill challenge to garner the required support to see it pass through the Senate. He stated that although he himself supported the bill, there is “an awful lot of anti-betting sentiment” in the Senate.
According to Thayer, there are doubts that the bill would even go to a Senate committee as lawmakers refused to be swayed by the huge potential of a legal sports betting market saying:
“I think it’s a natural extension of our long history and tradition of betting pari-mutuelly on horses, which is a form of sports betting in my opinion. But there’s still a lot of anti-gambling sentiment in this building.”
Even so, public support for legal sports betting is at an all-time high with recently released data collected by the Kentucky Chamber of Commerce revealing that during March, Kentuckians attempted to access out-of-state sports betting platforms 530,000 times.
According to the data collected by GeoComply, more than 41,000 local gamblers have sportsbook accounts in neighboring states that they cross the state lines to0 use on a regular basis.
If passed, HB 606 will legalize sports betting at Kentucky horse tracks including Churchill Downs and also the Kentucky Speedway while also allowing mobile sportsbooks to enter the market. Koenig had previously stated that a legal market would generate upwards of $20 million in tax revenue for the state.
Image credit: Abbie Myers / CC BY-SA 4.0
An experienced iGaming commentator and analyst based in New York City - Jenny reports on regulation and gambling industry news and events.