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Sports Betting Bill Passes Unanimously In Kentucky Legislature

While horse racing has always been home to some good old-fashioned legalized gambling, sports betting took a big step to put itself right alongside. On Wednesday, a bill to legalize sports betting unanimously passed the House Committee on Licensing, Occupations and Administrative Regulations.

The current plan is for bettors to place their wagers in person at horse racing tracks, where they could also download an app that would allow them to bet at home, or at Kentucky Speedway. The state of Kentucky would tax profits up to 10.25 percent on in-person betting and 14.25 percent for online wagers – both of which would be overseen by the Kentucky Racing Committee.

It is estimated that Kentucky would bring in about $22.5 million in revenue for the state via sports betting.

“This bill is not going to solve our challenges, but it is a good first step,” said Representative Al Gentry, D-Louisville. “Sports betting is already here; we just want to regulate it; we just want to retain the revenues that are leaving.”

College Betting Allowed

Gentry, who partnered with Republican sponsor Adam Koenig, is hopeful that things are moving in the right direction. Especially since things are a little bit different this time around. Previous versions of the bill wouldn’t allow bettors to wager on games that included schools that were within the state borders of Kentucky.

“If you’ve got five wagers you want to make over the weekend and none of them is on an in-state college team, and you’ve got to do four legally and one illegally, you might just have to make all five illegally,” said Koenig.

And let’s be honest. Droves of residents from the Bluegrass State want to bet on major schools like the University of Kentucky and University of Louisville. Both schools even have long-reaching fanbases and national reputations that range far past the state borders.

The schools released a joint statement saying they’ll remain neutral on sports betting legislature because their best interest lies in protecting the student-athletes.

“Even as we know that state and federal officials will be charged with enforcement of these issues rather than our respective compliance offices, we will continue to be proactive in educating our student-athletes about the issues surrounding sports wagering in order to protect their welfare and the integrity of competition,” as per the statement.

Working Together

Trying to get this sports betting bill passed has been a dream for the Kentucky lawmakers for quite some time now. The hunger within the state has gone so far that both Democrats and Republicans are both working together to get this done. Who would have ever guessed it?

Governor Andy Beshear has been fully on board with the push to get sports betting legalized. In fact, Beshear even made it one of the main agenda points on his recent campaign.

Although there would need to be changes made to the state’s constitution, it’s a good sign that the Governor is on board to make sure everything goes smoothly.

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