Key points:
- Oklahoma has yet to bring legal sports betting to its players
- One senator believes the market would generate revenue that has gone to other states
Legislators in Oklahoma are seeking to possibly legalize sports betting statewide, according to a recent local news report from The Journal Record.
Revenue decline in the state has caused some lawmakers to look toward sports betting, the local report said. The state expects revenue to drop during 2025, following the elimination of the grocery tax.
However, Senator Dave Rader shared with the Journal Record that he believes if Tribes and state officials could reach an agreement, sports betting could “be a windfall.”
He further commented, “In the last three years, we’ve reduced taxes somewhere close to $1bn.
“If we’re going to continue to do that, we have to offset it in some way, and this is one way that we could do it. It just seems like it would be a win for the state, a win for the tribes and a win for the taxpayers”
Last month, the senator filed Bill 125, which would allow Tribes that have signed compacts with the state to offer sports pools. Per the conditions of the bill, Tribes “tribes must execute a supplement to the compact outlined in the measure to offer betting services.”
Rader told locals news that because gamblers travel out of state to play, Oklahoma is losing revenue to other states.
Oklahoma Governor Kevin Stitt is not optimistic that the state will reach an agreement on sports betting before he leaves office next year, the local report said.
The controversy between Stitt and the state’s Tribes began when the Governor failed to renegotiate the compacts in 2019, claiming voter-approved deals from 2004 had expired. The negotiation pushed for the state to gain larger shares of the Tribes’ gaming revenue.
This resulted in a legal battle, which started after several Tribes, including the Cherokee, Chickasaw, Citizen Potawatomi and Choctaw nations sued in Washington’s federal district court because of Stitt’s compacts with the Comanche Nation, the Otoe-Missouria, the Kialegee Tribal Town and the United Keetoowah Band of Cherokee Indians.
A federal judge later automatically renewed the compacts, siding with Tribal leadership. Stitt hired private law firms in the suit, racking up close to $600,000 in legal fees.
