An Oklahoma lawmaker is looking to light a fire under efforts to legalize sports betting in the state in 2025.
State Sen. Dave Rader’s SB 125, pre-filed ahead of the start of the 2025 legislative session in early February, would amend the state’s Model Tribal Gaming Compact to allow tribes to enter compacts to offer retail and online sport betting.
Tribes that have entered into a compact with the state would be permitted to offer “sports pools,” defined in the bill’s language as any in-person or mobile device betting on the outcome of sporting events or other events, other than horse or other animal races.
Unlike previous Oklahoman sports betting proposals, wagering would be regulated by the Oklahoma Horse Racing Commission.
The bill would tax sports betting at 5% of the first $5 million of annual net revenue, 6% of the next $5 million in revenue and 7% of any revenue above $10 million. Licensed tribes would be entitled to keep an amount equal to its state payments from sports betting.
Oklahoma tribes hold gambling exclusivity in the state. SB 125 would require the consent of at least four of them.
Other sports betting measures could be forthcoming in 2025. Steve Ruddock’s Straight to the Point newsletter suggests that other lawmakers, Sen. Bill Coleman and Rep. Ken Luttrell, are also expected to file wagering bills this year.
Oklahoma sports betting an uphill battle
SB 125 will likely remain a longshot to actually pass, given how previous legalization efforts in Oklahoma have fared.
Luttrell has pre-filed several sports betting bills in past years, including one in 2023 which passed through the House but disintegrated in the Senate. That bill called for a staggered tax rate with the same revenue thresholds as Rader’s new bill, although with lower rates of 4%, 5% and 6%.
Similar efforts have also been in vain.
Gov. Kevin Stitt’s own plan for regulated sports betting in Oklahoma in 2024 was met by dissent from tribes, who said they were not consulted on a proposal that would have infringed upon their exclusivity rights and pitted them directly against commercial sportsbooks.
Another effort last year, Sen. Casey Murdock’s SB 1434, did not move beyond committee level. Both of those proposals would have brought sports betting regulation under the scope of the Oklahoma Lottery Commission.
Stitt said last spring, after the 2024 efforts stalled that “I certainly want us to get something across the finish line that’s fair for Oklahomans.”