Minnesota's sports betting legalization effort fails
Bill sponsor Zach Stephenson issues statement of hope for 2025 legislative session after coming up “just short”
Minnesota’s politicians failed to progress with the legalization of sports betting after missing out on majority approval before the end of the 2024 legislative session.
Representative Zack Stephenson’s bill would have given the state’s native American tribes exclusive access to offer online sports betting licenses, with a tax rate of 20%.
However, Stephenson’s took to X, formerly known as Twitter, on Sunday night and confirmed the end of the effort for 2024.
He wrote: “We’re going to come up just short on the sports betting bill this year.
“But in the last few days we proved that we could find a deal that all the major stakeholders could live with.
“Tribes, [horse racing] tracks, charities… That’s meaningful progress that can be a foundation for the future.”
Stephenson’s latest bill instead would provide both of the state’s two tracks with an annual stipend of $625,000 toward supplementing racing purses.
The bill would have set aside half of state sports betting tax revenue to problem and responsible gaming initiatives, while also formally legalizing daily fantasy sports with a tax rate of 10%.
The racetracks have sought to offer “historical horse racing machines” that are legal in other states, but the tribes and other critics say they are merely thinly disguised slot machines.
Stephenson was successful last week in a push to specifically ban such gaming devices, in response to the state’s racing commission earlier in 2024 having voted to allow 500 such machines at both the Canterbury Downs and Running Aces tracks.
Stephenson’s bill also had the support of all of Minnesota’s professional sports teams – including the NBA’s Timberwolves.