Kentucky lawmakers develop sports betting bill

Legislators from different political parties are working towards a sports betting bill to boost revenue.

US.- A group of legislators in Kentucky are developing a legislative piece to legalise and regulate sports betting in the state. The lawmakers are from different political parties and have been working together for a few weeks to come up with a strong legislative piece.

State Senators Morgan McGarvey and Julie Raque Adams, as well as State House Representative Jason Nemes, have been receiving input from several politicians from all political parties and other people related to the business in order to create a draft bill to present it once the General Assembly convenes in January 2019.

“Getting sports gaming here is something we need to do because it will provide needed revenue and its money people are already spending anyway,” McGarvey said, adding that while sports betting is already taking place in the state, they need to figure out a legal way to benefit from it. “What we’re doing is we’re bringing it out of the shadows from the bookies and we’re bringing it into a more respectable regulated way that also gives the state some money.”

Rep Nemes said that they estimate that sports betting can bring in between US$5 million and US$60 million a year. “While we think it’s a good thing to bring to Kentucky because of a lot of reasons, revenue stream, liberty and those types of things, we do recognize it does have some bad components as well so we want to address those at the front end,” Nemes said.

The group of lawmakers said that they have already decided that professional sports will be included in the bill, while high school athletics will be off the table. College sports are still being considered, as it could have a significant impact on revenues. “This is really I think going to turn into a really large conversation and it’s I think a very appropriate conversation for the state of Kentucky to have,” Raque Adams said.