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SportsTranscript
00:00 Let's get started and talk about this update out of nowhere that we got from Minnesota,
00:08 dare I say, some potential optimism for getting legalized sports betting there.
00:12 I don't know how this will proceed, but late last week, all of a sudden I saw things coming
00:17 on my social media feed that led me to believe that the door is open again.
00:23 The door certainly is still open in Minnesota, and as you know, and frequent listeners and
00:28 viewers know, I'm very, I've been very bullish the last couple of years on Minnesota and
00:34 this year has been a roller coaster.
00:36 I mean, we've had a great start to the year where everybody had come to the table over
00:41 the break and we're talking about how to get it over the goal line and get it signed by
00:48 the governor and that those talks kind of broke down as the session rolled on.
00:55 I mean, at points this session, we've seen basically lawmakers just throwing things at
01:02 the wall to see what sticks and what we can get over the line.
01:05 That's turned into certain things like a ban on all in-game wagering on the Senate side,
01:10 which you know, that would, no stakeholders wanted that.
01:15 And again, it all comes down to this, this breakdown of the Republicans and the tracks
01:21 and the tribes and the Democrats.
01:23 The tribes as it is stands now has complete exclusivity for sports book operations.
01:29 The tracks want it.
01:31 You need bipartisan support because the majorities are so slim for the Democrats in both chambers
01:38 and there's opposition in both sides of the aisle of two gambling.
01:42 So you need the, you need the agreement between the two stakeholders, the tribes and the tracks
01:48 to get the lawmakers to agree on a deal.
01:51 Now things kind of slowed to a roll last week or last month because the horse racing commission
01:58 came out and said, Hey, we want to put VLTs in the two horse racing tracks.
02:02 The tribes said, well, we don't like that.
02:04 So a new bill came out that's outlawed historical horse racing, which are basically slot machines
02:12 that upset the tracks and the Republicans, the tracks.
02:15 Then one of the tracks then in turn sued a couple of the tribal casinos and said, Hey,
02:20 we're offering games outside of your state compacts.
02:23 So this kind of was a big stalemate, but last week, you know, there was a committee movement
02:28 and in less than an hour, we'll, we'll get started in the Minnesota house, which does
02:35 expect to get through and go over to the Senate.
02:38 This there's Senate dysfunction this year because there's a 51 or a one vote majority
02:46 for the Democrats.
02:47 One of those senators was arrested last month for breaking into her step-mom's house to
02:52 get things like her father's ashes.
02:56 That has caused some interesting dysfunction because the Republicans say, Hey, we want
03:01 her voting rights stripped, which of course would even out the Senate.
03:04 The Democrats stripped her of her committee seats, but left her allowed to vote.
03:09 And so there's been a lot of like stalemates, they're pushing back and forth in the Senate.
03:13 So even if sports betting gets over to the Senate, we'll see what happens there because
03:19 who knows, it might not even get acted on because the session ends Monday.
03:23 And we've got the Republican Senator Jeremy Miller who has sponsored sports betting legislation
03:28 in the past.
03:29 He came out earlier this week and said, Hey, we're still working on it.
03:32 We can come to a deal.
03:33 I'm working on, you know, working with both parties trying to come up with a deal, but
03:38 we're only going to approve it.
03:39 The Republicans are going to approve it.
03:41 If the tracks get a license and the tribes don't want that, the tribes hold a lot of
03:45 power with the Democrats.
03:47 So there's a lot of things at play right now.
03:50 And you know, a couple of industry sources have told me it's about 50/50.
03:54 We've had lawmakers that sponsor it when everything was happening last month, say it was down
03:59 to 20%.
04:01 So I mean, there's some optimism, the door is still open, as you said, but so many moving
04:06 parts that need to come into action with just a few legislative days left.
04:11 [Music]