Kentucky passes sports betting at racetracks
LEXINGTON, Ky. – The Kentucky Senate on Thursday night mustered enough votes to pass a bill allowing racetracks in the state to offer sports betting.
The bill, which was given a slim chance of passage in a year in which revenue bills must achieve a 60 percent majority, will allow racetracks to offer sports betting at their licensed operations and partner with operators for mobile applications. Under the bill, the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission will regulate the business and will have until the end of the year to draft sports-betting rules.
The bill passed on the last day of the 2023 legislative session, along with several other bills that were not given strong chances of approval earlier in the year.
Racetracks have lobbied for sports betting for the past several years, but bills to authorize the business have not made it out of the Senate. Both houses of the legislature have Republican supermajorities. Gov. Andy Beshear, a Democrat, has also been a vocal proponent, and his office said on Friday morning that he would sign the bill.
Officials involved in the effort had said that the legislation did not have the votes in the Senate this year, but they had predicted that it would easily pass next year, when a simple majority was needed for approval.
Beshear is running for re-election this year against a wide field of Republican hopefuls. Because polls have shown that a vast majority of Kentucky residents support sports betting, Republicans likely decided to put the bill over the finish line prior to the election this year in order to eliminate a likely talking point for Beshear’s campaign.
Sports betting has swept across the U.S. since the Supreme Court issued a decision in 2018 allowing states to legalize the practice. Sports betting is already legal in every state bordering Kentucky but Missouri.
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