A bill that would legalize sports betting in Minnesota has been moved through two committees and now moves to the Public Safety Finance and Policy Committee.
Representative Zack Stephenson has authored HF 2000, which would allow for retail and mobile wagering. It first went to the House Judiciary Finance and Civil Law Committee. They approved it and it went to the House Commerce, Finance and Policy Committee.
It had an equally easy time getting through that body and now goes to the Public Safety Finance and Policy Committee. The Bill calls for the state’s 11 Native American Tribes to have control of both retail and mobile betting, though they would likely bring in sportsbooks operators such as DraftKings or FanDuel.
Stephenson, a democrat, had similar legislation last year but it died in the Republican-controlled Senate.
This year’s Bill is similar to the previous one. Any Minnesota resident over 21 years of age would be allowed to wager on sports in either retail outlets on tribal land or mobile apps controlled by tribes.
There would be four bets that would be off limits; player injuries, penalties, player disciplinary rulings, and replay reviews.
One definite loser in Stephenson’s Bill is horse racing facilities. There are two of those facilities in the state and horse race betting would be confined to just those tracks.
Tracie Wilson, CEO of Running Aces Casino and Racetrack, told the committee the exclusion of betting on horses at the sportsbooks would hurt profits.
“If our race track is excluded from sports betting expansion, this will endanger the future of our over $500 million racing industry in Minnesota.” Wilson said. “We are asking today for parity and basic fairness.”
There has been little opposition to making The Gopher State the 34th state in the U.S. to make betting on sports legal. One critic of sports betting has been Leah Patton, executive director of the Joint Religious Legislative Coalition. She attended both hearings but admittedly could find little fault with the Bill.
“It’s a pretty good version of something we really don’t like,” Patton said.
