Minnesota flops effort to legalize sports betting

Minnesota has become the latest state to try and fail to legalize sports gambling in 2024, with lawmakers coming short of a full vote that would have seen the state join the sprawling family of sports gambling jurisdictions in the country.

This means that despite the better intentions of many, sports gambling will have to wait at least another year. Alabama, Georgia, and Mississippi have all so far followed a similar fate already, coming short of the legalization of their sports gambling industries.

This is not the first time that a bill has failed in Minnesota, with sports gambling proving a difficult nut to crack by and by. Rep. Zach Stephenson, one of the main advocates and proponents of sports gambling, said on X, previously known as Twitter, that the bill had failed with just a few votes, meaning that the momentum for sports gambling in general is building up nicely in the state, and this week’s failure paves the way for future success, as there is a solid foundation for pushing on with gambling legalization.

Stephenson has some legislative success to boast about, however, as another bill he sponsored, that explicitly sought to ban historical horse racing from state tracks, has passed before the current session wrapped up.

Yet, the bill proposed by Stephenson and seeking to legalize sports gambling did not get a vote. Stephenson remains upbeat about the results, as he said that the current legislative session demonstrated that all parties involved and potentially impacted by the legalization of sports gambling in the state have shown a willingness to come together and work on the issue – including charities, tracks, and tribes.

He called the current outcome a "meaningful progress." In the meantime, although there has not been much breakaway success in legalizing sports gambling this year across the United States, some states are still to decide later in 2024. One of those is Missouri which could still see sports gambling legalized, and perhaps even in time for the NFL Season or the Super Bowl.

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