Oklahoma will not be legalizing sports betting in 2025.
A pair of approved House bills that would have provided a legal pathway to the Sooner State offering commercial sports wagering were not voted on by the Senate before the May 8 deadline for third-reading approval.
Sponsored by Rep. Ken Luttrell, HB 1047 and HB 1101 passed in the House with strong bipartisan support earlier in this year’s session, but did not get beyond the committee stage in the opposite chamber.
Senate President Pro Tempore Lonnie Paxton told Fox 25 that an agreement couldn’t be reached and added that senators would like to study the issue this summer instead.
Luttrell’s HB 1047 laid out a betting market framework that would have allowed Oklahoma tribes to offer in-person and online sports betting on tribal lands. The initial version of the bill proposed a 10% tax rate. The politician worked with tribes and the Oklahoma Indian Gaming Association to craft the bill.
However, when HB 1047 was approved by a Senate committee after crossing over from the House, it was only done with an amendment that struck its enacting clause stricken.
HB 1101 was intended as a safety net by sending the issue to state voters in 2026 Gov. Kevin Stitt vetoed the first bill.
Gov. Stitt likely would have thrown out bill anyway
In all likelihood, even if Luttrell’s bill has been green-lit by the Senate and sent to Stitt’s desk, he would have rejected it.
Stitt is a renowned opponent of keeping sports betting under exclusive tribe control. He vowed in late February that he would “absolutely veto” any bills that suggested limiting online sports wagering to tribal-only platforms, arguing that such a market would equate to an unhealthy monopoly.
Around the same time, the governor insisted that his own proposed plan for online sports betting, first published in November 2023, is still the right way to proceed. His plan would legalize retail and online sports betting and he said it would cater to tribes by allowing them exclusivity for land-based betting at the state’s retail casinos. Retail betting would be taxed at 15% and online betting, which would have been open to outside operators, at 20%.
Tribes pushed back, arguing that they were not consulted on the proposal and alleging it would violate the state Tribal Gaming Act.
Oklahoma City Thunder bill also dead
Another Oklahoma sports betting proposal, Sen. Bill Coleman’s SB 585, would have allowed Oklahoma tribes to offer retail sports betting at tribal casinos and online sports betting on tribal lands, but also allowed the NBA’s Oklahoma City Thunder to acquire a sports betting license and contract with one tribal-approved operator.
His bill was approved on a reconsidered vote by the Senate in late March but Coleman withdrew the bill before it could go before a House committee.
So, a push to legalize sports betting in Oklahoma is dead for another year. Until Stitt’s term as governor ends in 2027, it looks likely to face an uphill struggle.
