Politicians Push for Legal Minnesota Sports Betting
The push for the legalization of Minnesota sports betting has picked up once again. If passed, Minnesota would join fellow midwestern states Iowa, Illinois, and Indiana in officially legalizing sports betting.
The legislation, which is a bi-partisan state senate proposal, would legalize sports betting across Minnesota both on the internet and at casinos and horse race tracks as well as in-person betting at tribal casinos and racetracks.
The push to legalize betting in Minnesota comes in the wake of recent mass legalization across the country, including very recently in the state of New York. In fact, only seven states have taken no action at all when it comes to legalizing sports betting.
Why Minnesota Needs Sports Betting
The fact that this is bi-partisan action is a very good thing for the state. Legal sports betting is obviously a trend that isn’t going anywhere, and Minnesota residents have been starved for it for a while.
Julia Coleman, a Republican senator representing Carver County in Minnesota’s Twin City metropolitan area, said of this matter, “This is something that people in Minnesota want to see happen — that they’re, quite frankly, traveling across the border to make happen,” and went on to say “This is a win-win scenario for the people of Minnesota and for the state of Minnesota.”
There is a lot of support for this recent legislation, but significant backlash also certainly exists in the state. Those that are against the legalization of sports betting in Minnesota feel that way for the usual reasons, the main one being concerns over gambling addiction and the rapid increase of online betting which has made it easy to place a bet anywhere and at any time.
These are certainly legitimate concerns, however, there is no widespread evidence to indicate that those states who’ve legalized sports gambling have a problem with their citizens becoming addicted in overwhelming numbers. There are also serious state tax benefits to legalizing sports betting, which adds to government funds, and in turn, its ability to support its own citizens’ livelihoods.
Sports betting brings in tens of billions of dollars per year and that creates new revenue for the government on the state level. Since the wave of sports betting legalization across the US, it’s only been a good thing for the economy as well as obviously increasing interest in sports generally.
The plan Minnesota legislators are currently laying out would allow the state to tax revenue from online gambling which would in turn make Minnesota a wealthier state in the long run when looking at how much citizens of other states spend on online gambling.
How to Pass Minnesota Sports Betting Legislation
This isn’t the first time Minnesota has tried to pass legislation making sports betting legal state-wide. This time, however, there is undeniable proof that sports betting is both an incredibly popular trend nationwide and actually has concrete state benefits.
The fact that Minnesota residents already go over the border into neighboring states to do their betting should be an indicator that the laws around this stuff are due for a change. They’re going to do their betting no matter what, and at the very least the state could make a profit off of that.
Minnesota is a relatively progressive state as well, so their passing this would likely continue the increase in states passing legislation on this matter. The Minnesota senators who are fighting for this legislation need to continue to argue that not passing action to make sports betting legal wouldn’t stop its residents from gambling, and it would only show that Minnesota is behind the curve when it comes to sports betting. Never a good look for a state whose population eats, breathes and sleeps sports.
