Lawmakers in the Bluegrass State are going to take another run at legal sports betting.
The Kentucky state legislature reconvened again this week, and there are early signs that the issue of whether to authorize retail and online sports betting sites in the horse-racing hub will again be on the agenda.
Perhaps the most prominent indication came during Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear’s state of the commonwealth address on Wednesday.
“We'll also be filing legislation to finally legalize sports betting,” Beshear said during his speech.
A bipartisan bind
There is now legislation introduced in the House of Representatives that aims to implement legal sports betting in Kentucky. Sports wagering at racetracks and online sports betting sites would be authorized by House Bill 106 if it passes.
However, H.B. 106 is sponsored by Democrats. And, after last November’s midterm elections, the state’s legislature is again dominated by Republicans, who have supermajorities in both the House and Senate.
That means any sports-betting bill will require GOP help if it is to have any hope. Whether that will happen remains to be seen.
Here we go again
An attempt last year at legalizing sports betting in Kentucky came up short. The Republican legislator who proposed the bill that would have brought sports betting to the Bluegrass State lost a primary challenge and will not be around this time to try to nudge similar legislation forward.
Nevertheless, Kentucky is a state that has long had wagering on one specific sport, horse racing, but no others. Kentucky is now almost surrounded by states that have legal sports betting as well, including Ohio, where event wagering went live on January 1. That will keep pressure on lawmakers to follow suit.
But, according to House Speaker David Osborne, Kentuckians should not expect “an incredibly aggressive agenda” this year, the Associated Press reported recently.
“I do think it’s incumbent upon us to pump the brakes a little bit and tweak some things where they need to be tweaked, make some adjustments where they need to be adjusted,” the speaker reportedly said.
