Oklahoma Sports Betting Bill Stalls in the State Legislature

Details: Category: Gambling Industry; Created: Saturday, 13 July 2024 09:49

The Oklahoma sports betting bill has hit a roadblock in the State Legislature, primarily due to Governor Kevin Stitt and the state’s tribes' inability to compromise. Matthew Morgan, chairman of the Oklahoma Indian Gaming Association, noted that despite the governor's backing, there is a distinct lack of enthusiasm for legalizing sports wagering in the state.

Morgan further highlighted that the 25 member tribes in his association have not seen any sincere efforts from state authorities to engage them in this matter. He also pointed out that sports betting offers poor profit margins. According to bookie pay per head experts, the tribal chiefs would be open to negotiating a contract within the boundaries of their current compacts. However, they are not interested in signing additional compacts or taking on more financial risk.

The US sports betting landscape changed significantly in 2018 when the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act. This act had long prohibited state-sponsored sports gambling, with a few exceptions. The court's decision came after years of unsuccessful attempts by Republican politicians to legalize sports betting. In November, Governor Stitt surprised legislators and tribes with his proposal to make it legal.

Oklahoma Sports Betting Bill

However, his suggestion was met with swift opposition. According to tribal chiefs, Stitt neglected to include them in the plan's development. Even though it gave tribes the monopoly on in-person betting, any vendor may buy a license to run mobile gambling for half a million dollars. At the time, naysayers pointed out that 95% of the money came from internet wagers and that tribes had the sole right to run the games thanks to the state-tribal gaming compacts.

When Stitt tried to renegotiate the conditions of the current gaming compacts by falsely claiming that they didn't auto-renew, he failed, and his relationship with the tribal chiefs became tense. When asked for comment, Stitt's office remained silent. Response requests were also either not responded to or denied by several tribal nations.

Gambling software providers say sports betting is legal in 38 states and the District of Columbia. Republican Senator Casey Murdock expressed confusion at the bill's lack of progress after proposing SB 1434 in the 2024 session. In his mind, his bill was equitable for all of Oklahoma.

According to sportsbook pay per head reviews and news sites, Murdock's bill would have enabled anyone to provide mobile sports betting, which aligned with Stitt's original intent. However, neither the appropriations committee nor the whole Senate approved it.

Opponents of Sports Betting in Oklahoma

According to Jay Finks, director of operations at the Oklahoma Lottery Commission, sports betting is fraught with peril and offers far smaller payouts. Finks stated that the dominance of tribal nations in the gaming business makes the emergence of a "hard-core" competitive market in Oklahoma between companies like Draft Kings or FanDuel highly improbable.

With HB 1027, the legislature made its most encouraging effort to legalize sports betting in the 2023 session. After passing the House, the measure stalled in the Senate. Without this small supplement, the tribes would not have been able to provide sports betting.

Senator Bill Coleman, who authored the measure, stated that many of his constituents contacted him to support the legalization of sports betting.

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