The battle to bring legal sports betting to the Land of 10,000 Lakes has gotten ugly, and lawmakers are already predicting the demise of wagering legislation that is still making progress in the House of Representatives.
There are still a few weeks left of potential lawmaking in Minnesota before the state legislature adjourns for the year on May 20.
The odds of a sports betting bill getting passed before then are looking long, however, which would not be the first time event wagering legislation flopped in Saint Paul.
“I appreciate the conversation today, though not necessarily the prognostication,” said DFL Rep. Zack Stephenson, the chief sponsor of sports betting-related legislation, on Tuesday. “There's a long way to go left in session, and ‘nothing's ever done until sine die’ [adjournment] is one of the oldest cliches about this place, but it's because it's true.”
Stephenson’s bill, House File 2000, was advanced on Tuesday by the House Taxes Committee on a 12-9 vote in favor. The bill, which would authorize retail and online sports betting in Minnesota, was referred to the chamber’s Ways and Means committee for its next stop in the legislative process.
A near-run thing
However, the progress only came after some committee members came close to removing all of the sports betting and fantasy sports provisions from the bill. The proposed amendment would have left only tax relief for charities, which are calling for help after lawmakers placed new restrictions on electronic pull-tab games.
“It's somewhat unfortunate that [charities are] going to go another year with nothing because this bill will not pass,” said Republican Rep. Greg Davids, the amendment’s author, during Tuesday’s committee meeting. “It'll probably pass the House, but it will not pass the Senate.”
The Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party has a majority in both chambers of the Minnesota legislature, but that advantage is slimmer in the Senate, where the DFL has a one-seat edge over the Republicans.
Davids was not the only lawmaker on Tuesday who forecast defeat for H.F. 2000 either. Yet on the matter of the amendment, Stephenson noted the 20% tax rate for sports betting revenue proposed in his bill is what would pay for the charitable tax relief, and without wagering, there is no funding mechanism. The proposed change to the bill then failed by a narrow vote, with nine voting for and 10 against, with two members excused.
That the amendment came so close to passing, though, could be a sign of the uphill battle H.F. 2000 or anything similar faces in passing this year, as lawmakers, charities, racetrack operators, and Native American gaming tribes can’t quite seem to get on the same page.
“What we did last year was we really, really hit [the charities] hard,” Davids said. “Now we're trying to fix it, and we put it in a bill that to some of us is extremely objectionable.”
Running Aces, one of the state's two horse-racing tracks, has filed a federal racketeering lawsuit claiming three Minnesota tribal casinos have offered card games not authorized in state law. https://t.co/vvGKrFLYIl
— Star Tribune Sports (@StribSports) April 16, 2024
The battle over sports betting in Minnesota has become a war fought on several fronts, not just in the legislature, but in the courts and before state gaming regulators.
The various issues plaguing the pro-sports betting camp include senators removing in-game wagering from H.F. 2000’s companion bill, regulators approving historical horse racing (HHR) machines at the state’s two horse-racing tracks (prompting Stephenson to propose legislation to ban HHR), and a lawsuit filed by one of the tracks against tribal casino executives over allegedly illegally offered games.
Throw in the fact that some lawmakers were already opposed to sports betting, or certain proposed models for sports betting, and the dwindling amount of time remaining in the legislative session and you’ve got a tough path forward for any bill.
“I think that with the nonsense that’s going on in the Senate that borders on criminal, we probably will not see this bill passed this year,” Republican Rep. Bjorn Olson said Tuesday. “Which is why it's really sad for me personally that we couldn't at least take care of our charities.”
