With the way things have been going for this particular battle, it should be no surprise at all that yet another sports betting setback has come in for the Sooner State. That's right, while there was some hope that a shocking decision would come in to get the green light, the Oklahoma Senate officially rejected the latest sports betting push. This is an update that we don't have to tell you has people all over the state quite disappointed.

This particular failure hurts quite a bit, as it was announced that the sports betting bill was just four votes short of passing. Yup, the House Bill 1047 had serious movement and it felt like things had a real shot of getting approved. Despite this, it indeed fell short by only a handful of the needed votes. According to the Oklahoma Voice, Senator Bill Coleman said he could look to rework the bill to see if it can have legs again the next time things can be voted on. Still, opposition remains.

“This bill doesn’t simply legalize a harmless activity,” Senator Dusty Deevers said via the Oklahoma Voice in a recent discussion on things. “It institutionalizes a vice and then asks the state to profit from it. That is a fundamental ethical problem.”

The worries of gambling addiction have consistently been brought up in recent years, which is a major reason why things were not passed this time around. As Denver's stated, plenty of people don't think this is a 'harmless' activity and the idea of the state taking advantage of that and bringing in revenue doesn't sit well with him. Plenty of others have the same thought, which is why Oklahoma does not have legal sports betting and this new negative update came in.

Prediction markets are on the rise in Oklahoma and that's a big problem

One of the main arguments Coleman has right now in his push to legalize sports wagers is that prediction markets are on the rise in Oklahoma and that's a big problem. Despite no legal sports betting being an option, Oklahoma citizens are using these prediction market apps at a consistent level. Since those apps are approved at a federal level, people using them aren't breaking laws. However, with no legal sports betting on the table for the state, it's a messy situation.

In his pitch, Coleman made it quite clear that while some people have concerns about Oklahoma betting bringing in revenue from sports betting, people need to keep in mind that illegal activity is still being recorded and the money being transferred is not being regulated. Why should Oklahoma officials sit back and let that kind of sports betting continue and not do a thing about it?

That's the point that Coleman is trying to get across. Yes, they are understanding of the concerns for legal sports betting, but if it's going down anyway, there's no reason that Oklahoma should not benefit from it. If anything, the need for regulated wagers would only improve things overall for people interested in putting money down on their favorite sports teams.

The sports betting future in Oklahoma now remains unclear

Had this House Bill been approved like everyone was hoping for, legalization would have been put in place this fall, just in time for the heart of the football season. Now, though, the sports betting future in Oklahoma now remains unclear. Again, there was a target date for around November for things to get approved and ready for operation.

That would have been the best-case scenario for everyone in Oklahoma, but now things are looking like people will need to wait at least one more year for this to get done. That's obviously not what anyone wants to happen, especially right now. In a perfect world if there was legal sports betting, people would be checking the NBA betting sites frequently, as the Oklahoma City Thunder are hoping to repeat.

Yup, the Thunder hold tremendous NBA futures odds to win it all again, which has people all over the state quite excited. The issue here is that with no online sports betting or in-person betting options, people are forced to go through the prediction market apps if they want to bet on the Thunder. This is one of the main concerns that Coleman brought up, but it didn't make enough of a difference for the votes to be swayed in his favor.