After failing the last few years, it might be safe not to bet on sports betting in Minnesota being made legal in 2023, but some say it could be the year for it.
Even with recent failures, state Rep. Pat Garofalo (R-58B) joined News Talk 830 WCCO's Susie Jones to discuss why he thinks the Minnesota state legislature can get it done next year.
"It's going to happen next year," Garofalo said. "We've just reached a tipping point here."
After the Minnesota legislative session ended and another attempt to legalize sports betting failed, Garofalo took to Twitter, saying no one party was to blame, as the finger could be pointed everywhere.
While Garofalo acknowledged that it is never easing turning a black market practice legal, he says it just needs to get done.
"Nobody benefits from keeping it illegal and sending people out of state. It's just really dumb," he said.
The main argument that is stalling it from happening is who will make money, Garofalo said. But he thinks stakeholders will come together in the coming weeks, and if they can't reach an agreement, then the legislature will pass a bill on their own next year.
"What the stakeholders really need right now is a shared enemy," Garofalo said. "If they're not getting along with each other and they're fighting, maybe what they need to do is find a legislature that they're scared of and have him as a shared enemy, and that will bring them together to reach an agreement. Maybe that person will be me."
Garofalo said that a bipartisan bill passed in the House of Representatives would have legalized sports betting in Minnesota with exclusivity to the state's tribal casinos. However, when the bill went to the state Senate, it passed out of the finance committee with an amendment including Running Aces and Canterbury.
When it was brought up for a vote before the entirety of the senate, some of the tribes and one of the racetracks were willing to compromise, giving sports betting to the tribal casinos and table games to the race tracks.
But, according to Garofalo, while some stakeholders were willing to buy in, there were also stakeholders opposing the compromise, which inevitably led to them running out of time.
While Garofalo doesn't know if the compromise they had before the session ended will be the solution when it is proposed next year, he does know that there is too much lost opportunity to go another year without passing some form of legislation.
"There's a lot of lost opportunities in sports gambling right now," Garofalo said. "It's been over four years since the Supreme Court overturned the federal ban on sports gambling, so I'm pretty confident it's going to happen next year."
As for how it will get passed, Garofalo thinks individual bills will be passed instead of linking issues together like was seen this year.
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