By Barbara Hoberock, Oklahoma Voice
OKLAHOMA CITY – The Oklahoma Senate on Wednesday rejected a bill that would have legalized sports betting.
After it fell four votes short of passing, Sen. Bill Coleman, R-Ponca City, the author, said he might seek another vote on House Bill 1047 after working for years to gain consensus on a bill that would allow Oklahomans to legally wager on sporting outcomes.
The measure would have allowed tribes to offer retail and mobile sports betting on tribal lands, remitting 8% of earnings to the state, Coleman said.
Mobile sports betting operators could also enter partnerships with the tribes to offer mobile sports betting on non-tribal lands, Coleman said.
Sports betting is already in Oklahoma through the prediction market and is operating illegally, Coleman said.
The state doesn’t get a dime out of it, and it is an unregulated industry, Coleman said.
His measure is estimated to bring in between $15 million and $18 million annually in additional revenue to the state.
Part of the proceeds would go into a fund used to globally promote the Oklahoma City Thunder, the state’s NBA team.
It would allow the tribes and the state to supplement existing gaming compacts, where the tribes pay the state an exclusivity fee to operate Class III electronic games and nonhouse-banked card games.
In fiscal year 2025, Oklahoma collected more than $221 million in exclusivity fees, a 5% increase over the prior year, according to the Oklahoma Gaming Compliance Unit Annual Report.
Thirty-nine states and Washington, D.C., have some form of legalized sports betting, according to Senate staff.
Critics of legalizing sports betting said they were concerned about the impact gambling has on low-income Oklahomans, young men and families.
“This bill doesn’t simply legalize a harmless activity,” said Sen. Dusty Deevers, R-Elgin. “It institutionalizes a vice and then asks the state to profit from it. That is a fundamental ethical problem.”
When the state sanctions gambling, it becomes a participant in a “moral hazard,” Deevers said.
Sen. Brian Guthrie, R-Bixby, said online sports betting is the fastest growing addiction and is destroying young men in their 20s.
“Gambling addiction is increasing across our United States, and the last thing I want to do is support that,” Guthrie said.
States that have expanded gambling have seen a rise in financial and family problems, said Sen. Darcy Jech, R-Kingfisher.
“It’s been disproportionate on the most economically precarious households,” Jech said. “Gambling has proven to foster addictive behaviors, a rise in credit card defaults, mortgage delinquencies.”
