Kentucky Moves Forward with Latest Sports Betting Bill
To pass, HB 551 must receive at least 60% of the votes for the bill in both the House and Senate.
Kentucky is making progress on a bill that would allow legal sports betting.
On Wednesday, the state’s Licensing and Occupations Committee voted House Bill 551, a law that would bring sports betting to a state known for horse racing.
HB 551 – presented on February 22 – will go to the House of Representatives for a vote as soon as next week. Chief sponsored by Rep. Michael Meredith, HB 551 proposes legalizing both online and individual sports betting in Kentucky.
HB 551, which would function in conjunction with the state’s nine-horse racetracks, would regulate wagers from the Kentucky Horsing Race Commission. HB 551 would require online sports betting sites to pay a $500,000 royalty and 9.75% tax on bets placed at retail sportsbooks.
Bets placed online would be taxed at 14.25%. In 2019, it was estimated that sports betting in Kentucky could generate around $22.5 million in annual revenue. Back then, fewer than 20 states in the US had legal sports betting.
To pass, HB 551 must receive at least 60% of the votes for the bill in both the House and Senate. However, approving sports betting in Kentucky was an uphill battle.
Bluegrass state lawmakers have introduced legislation related to sports betting since 2018, but those bills didn’t get the support they needed in the Senate. Last year, the state House of Representatives passed House Bill 606 – a similar legal sports betting bill – by a vote of 58 to 30, but the bill failed to get the necessary votes in the Senate.
Legal sports betting has drawn backlash from Kentucky lawmakers over concerns it could damage the state’s moral standard and negatively impact children and their families. Despite failed legalization in the past, there is a positive outlook for 2023.
“I feel like we have a lot of momentum,” Meredith told the Lexington Herald leader. “I’m very optimistic about going into the (House) floor vote and going into the Senate vote.”
At least 23 votes in favor of HB 551 are required in the Senate for the bill to pass in this legislative session, which ends March 30.
Kentucky lawmakers may feel pressure from neighboring states to risk legal sports betting. In 2019, both Indiana and Illinois legalized online and retail sports betting. A year later, Tennessee legalized online betting, while Ohio legalized retail and online on January 31st.