Minnesota Sports Betting Hopes Are Fading Fast

Not so long ago, the legalization of Minnesota sports betting was portrayed as an inevitability. Many even predicted The Land of 10,000 Lakes were next in line to green light sports gambling.

Now? Not so much.

It turns out sports betting in Missouri was next in line. The Show Me State will be rolling out operations in December 2025. Minnesota, meanwhile, is fresh off another sports betting legislation failure.

In the past, these steps back have been championed as eventual steps forward. Everyone involved learned more about what needed to be done to get a piece of legislation over the hump. The next year was always the year it would happen.

This same tone is falling by the wayside following the latest attempt to legalize sports betting in Minnesota. And while sentiment can always change, two issues suggest sports gambling initiatives won’t go anywhere anytime soon. One of them is an all too familiar obstacle. The other is a one-off—and potentially the strongest evidence of all that the Minnesota sports betting timeline is bleaker than ever.

Support for Minnesota Sports Betting Appears to be Declining

For anyone who might not know, it wasn’t just Minnesota sports betting that got rejected this past year. It was also the attempt to study the potential effects of Minnesota sports betting that failed to get approval. As Matthew Blake wrote for the Minnesota Post:

“There are dormant issues at the State Capitol, and then, somewhere between dormant and buried underground, there is legalizing sports betting. On Tuesday, the Senate Taxes Committee rejected a proposal ‘to study, evaluate, provide recommendations and issue a report on the legalization of sports betting.’ The measure, not to legalize sports gambling but instead to study the possibility of one day maybe legalizing sports gambling, had been part of an omnibus tax spending bill…

“Committee chair Ann Rest, DFL-New Hope, said legislation to legalize sports gambling was too preliminary to require the Taxes, Finance and Human Services committees to produce a study about the subject, as the provision required…‘This is a year of real uncertainty about how things are going to go forward,’ Rest said at the meeting. ‘We had a lot of ‘I don’t know but it’s a good idea’ in the bills that came before us.’”

This is a wild development when you really think about it. Minnesota sports betting initiatives are proposed every year. Many were under the guise it was close to legalization in 2024. For the push to be called “too preliminary” suggests there’s a massive disconnect to which we’re not privy.

Or, as it turns out, maybe it’s the same recurring obstacle that has come up each and every time.

The Biggest Obstacle to Sports Betting in Minnesota Remains the Same

Recently introduced details no doubt impacted the fate of Minnesota sports betting. The latest bill included a provision that sought to ban push notifications for sportsbook apps, as one example. That is not something that went over well with everyone.

But this is an issue that can be negotiated toward a middle ground. The matter of who gets Minnesota sports betting is a different story.

Ryan Butler of Covers recently took a look at why all the latest failed sports betting initiatives went belly up. Here is what he has to say for Minnesota:

“Minnesota, perhaps more so than any state without legal sports betting, seems ready to support legal sportsbooks. The problem wasn’t ‘if’ Minnesota sports betting should be legal but ‘who’ would have access to sportsbooks. The state’s 11 gaming tribes argued that their compacts with the states gave them exclusive sports betting rights and withheld support for any proposal that granted sportsbook licenses to commercial establishments. The state's two horse tracks, as well as its multibillion-dollar charitable gaming industry, argued they should have sportsbooks as well.”

Now, Minnesota tribes and tracks have come to a compromise. Racetracks will not get sports betting licenses, but they will get a cut of the revenue. However, finding a middle ground has yet to result in a majority approval rating.

Not all lawmakers were sold on the model. Republicans, in particular, seem to favor bringing in online sportsbooks operating elsewhere in the United States. Tack on members of the Democratic party who remain concerned about studies showing rises in problem gambling post-legalization, and you have a recipe for stalled-out initiatives.

Where Does the Future of Minnesota Sports Betting Go From Here?

Hardly anyone has a sense of what to expect from the Minnesota sports betting discussion moving forward.

Some believe the 2025 push could have been successful if given more time. The initiative under review received enough votes to be tweaked and then brought back to the table. Certain lawmakers simply say they didn’t have enough time. Others, though, are starting to believe Minnesota sports betting legalization is further away than many thought.

The answer will almost assuredly come during the next round of legislative meetings. If nothing makes headway in 2026, it might be time to consider what once didn’t seem possible: Minnesota sports betting will not be legalized before the end of the decade—if it even gets the stamp of approval at all.

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