Kentucky Sports Betting Moving Forward With Bill for 2020 General Assembly
The Kentucky General Assembly will take up sports betting again in 2020, as the lawmaker who sponsored the bill told Casino.org he will refile his proposal, possibly as soon as later this month. Kentucky state Rep. Adam Koenig plans to refile his sports betting bill before the General Assembly convenes for the 2020 session, which starts in January.
State Rep. Adam Koenig (R-Erlanger) has made it no secret that he wants to bring up the bill again. While last year it passed the House Licensing, Occupations and Administrative Regulations Committee which he chairs, the sports betting bill did not get a vote in the House before the session ended.
One big difference next year will be that the push for sports betting will have a supporter sitting in the governor’s office. Gov.-elect Andy Beshear made expanded gaming, including sports wagering, a cornerstone of his campaign platform. He defeated Gov. Matt Bevin, who officially conceded Thursday after a requested recanvass confirmed Beshear won by about 5,000 votes. While Bevin adamantly opposed casino gaming, he was more ambivalent toward sports betting.
The 2019 bill called for allowing the state’s horse racing tracks, as well as the Kentucky Motor Speedway, to apply for sports betting licenses. Kentucky, which does not have any casinos, is home to five thoroughbred tracks and two standardbred tracks. The 2020 session is slated to start on Jan. 7 and run through April 15. The 60-day session will give Koenig and other sports betting proponents twice the amount of time they had in the 2019 session to move the bill.
In the time since Kentucky failed to pass sports betting, three neighboring states – Illinois, Indiana, and Tennessee – passed their own bills (Fellow neighboring state West Virginia passed its law last year). Indiana has already opened both retail sportsbooks and mobile applications, and advertisements for its sport wagering services can be seen on billboards and in commercials in the Louisville, Ky. area.
While he plans to keep the bill essentially intact, Koenig said removing the ban on in-state college sports betting is on the table for 2020. His proposal also allows for mobile sports betting statewide, but it would require customers to open an account first at a retail sportsbook.
