{"id":209458,"date":"2022-04-14T20:12:45","date_gmt":"2022-04-15T03:12:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/?p=209458"},"modified":"2023-04-20T10:11:04","modified_gmt":"2023-04-20T15:11:04","slug":"kentucky-sports-betting-bill-fails-to-pass-general-assembly-on-sessions-final-day","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/kentucky-sports-betting-bill-fails-to-pass-general-assembly-on-sessions-final-day\/","title":{"rendered":"Kentucky Sports Betting Bill Fails to Pass on Legislative Session’s Final Day"},"content":{"rendered":"

Kentucky lawmakers ended the 2022 session of the General Assembly on Thursday evening. They were unable to pass legislation that would legalize sports betting in the Bluegrass State.<\/p>\n

\"Kentucky<\/a>
The Kentucky State Capitol in Frankfort at dusk on a clear Thursday evening. The 2022 General Assembly concluded Thursday night without lawmakers passing sports betting or a couple other gaming-related bills. (Image: Casino.org)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

House Bill 606<\/a>, which would have legalized sports betting and online poker and regulated fantasy sports, never got a third reading on the Senate floor during the final two days of the session. It could not even get out of a Senate committee, even as leaders moved it from the Licensing and Occupations Committee to the Economic Development, Tourism, and Labor Committee on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe just don\u2019t have the votes,\u201d Senate Majority Floor Leader Damon Thayer, R-Georgetown, said during a final-hour speech in the chamber.<\/p>\n

Thayer previously described the bill\u2019s chances of passing as a longshot before lawmakers returned Wednesday<\/a> for the final two days of the session. Nonetheless, as a supporter of the bill, he gave it two readings late last month before the legislature recessed for the veto period. That gave the bill\u2019s sponsor, state Rep. Adam Koenig<\/a>, one final chance to whip up support for the bill.<\/p>\n

Supporters told Casino.org<\/em> the bill was about four votes short as of Thursday morning.<\/p>\n

The end of the session brought about a sense of disappointment from proponents of the sports betting bill, which finally passed the House last month for the first time since Koenig, R-Erlanger, filed his initial bill in 2019. They pledged to continue the effort to legalize what 33 other states and the District of Columbia already have.<\/p>\n

All we did was postpone the inevitable,\u201d<\/strong> Koenig told Casino.org<\/em> after the session concluded.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Koenig thanked Thayer, Senate Majority Caucus Chair Julie Raque Adams, R-Louisville, and Economic Development Committee Chair Wil Schroder, R-Wilder, for their efforts to drum up support in the Senate.<\/p>\n

While proponents in the legislature were disappointed, supporters across Kentucky vented their frustrations online. Polls from February showed a two-thirds majority<\/a> of Kentuckians supported sports betting. That included a majority of Republican voters, a datapoint Koenig frequently pointed to as he sought support from his own party on the bill.<\/p>\n

\n

It took Kentucky forever to get @yuenglingbeer<\/a> distributed so I don\u2019t know why I\u2019m surprised we couldn\u2019t get sports betting done when every state around us has it.<\/p>\n

— Kevin Mullins (@KMullins4) April 15, 2022<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n