KEY TAKEAWAYS
- New governors in Georgia, Ohio, Oklahoma, Alabama and South Carolina are more open to gambling expansion than those they replace.
- Minnesota Democrats now control the governor’s office and both legislative chambers, which gives a tribal-led sports betting bill more room to move.
- Lobbyists warn that voters showed little appetite for gambling on Tuesday and that new legislatures could seek higher taxes and tighter rules.
Tuesday’s blue wave changed the gambling expansion outlook in several states that start 2027 sessions with new governors or new legislative majorities.
Some of the governors and legislators leaving office long blocked tribal compacts, online sports betting or casino amendments. Their successors are either open to those ideas or, in some cases, campaigned on them.
Even so, voters rejected online sports betting in Nebraska and turned down other gambling ballot measures across the country, so industry proponents expect a harder sell in 2027.
“As someone who is a political geek, it’s always thrilling to see democracy in action,” said Brandt Iden, vice president of government affairs at Fanatics Betting & Gaming and a former Michigan lawmaker who wrote the state’s online gaming law. “While I was personally disappointed in the outcome of the Nebraska referendum, I think [Tuesday] could provide some exciting opportunities for the future of gaming expansion. Whenever new members enter office it’s a time to reset and revisit policy initiatives.”
Here are six states where the outlook most notably changed after Tuesday’s election:
Corridor Consulting founder John Pappas compared Georgia to Texas. In both states a new door is open, but any gambling expansion needs voter approval. Tuesday showed voters have little appetite for more gambling in 2026, and in those two states in particular, Pappas said, any expansion will face well-funded opposition.
Democrat Keisha Lance Bottoms won the governor’s race, and Democrats flipped the Georgia House for the first time since 2004. Republicans kept a 29-27 Senate majority.
Former Louisiana Gaming Control Board Chairman Ronnie Jones noted that Bottoms regularly discusses the need to fund education and that gambling expansion could bring in new revenue of up to $300m a year.
“I think Georgia might be in play in the next couple of years,” Jones said. “They elected Keisha Lance Bottoms to the top job and she has previously voiced support for a constitutional amendment authorizing casino gambling.
“What support, if anything, she offers for sports wagering remains to be seen. I’m certain a group of legislators will push to open that market and will start lobbying Bottoms for her support.”
Josh Kirschner, an Atlanta-based partner at Holland & Knight, called Tuesday “an actual extinction-level event for Republicans” in Georgia and could ultimately help gambling expansion efforts.
Kirschner said the Georgia Lottery‘s popularity, built on the HOPE scholarship and pre-kindergarten funding, shapes the debate. Most stakeholders now agree that a constitutional amendment, and not a statute alone, is the only path forward. Bottoms has tied new revenue to PeachCare, universal pre-K and wider access to technical colleges and state universities.
An amendment needs two-thirds approval in both chambers. In 2026, a sports betting amendment failed in the House 98-63, with members of both parties voting against it.
“Georgia is a coalition question,” Kirschner said. “Can they find two-thirds vote on both sides? If they can, my money would be an amendment that legalizes [online sports betting] and destination casinos and put that to the voters.”
Ohio Democrat Amy Acton won the governor’s race after supporting legal online casino gaming during the campaign.
Republicans still control both chambers, though Democrats broke the GOP supermajority in the House.
“Ohio is certainly very interesting,” Pappas said. “Amy Acton was vocally supportive of iGaming. There are going to be some political tensions there, as the House and Senate are Republican controlled, albeit with slimmer majorities than before.”
Pappas said Acton’s plan could be to include iGaming in the next two-year budget, which would turn a policy question into a partisan one. Republicans could oppose it simply because it came from her.
“What wasn’t a political issue becomes one now,” he said if it is in a budget proposal. “The same dynamic could play out in Texas, ” he added, where one party controls part of the legislature and refuses to give the other party a win.
Rep. Brian Stewart‘s iGaming bill would limit licenses to existing casinos and racinos. Its sponsor sees 2027 as an opening.
Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt reached the end of his term limit after years of fighting tribes over compacts.
Republican Mike Mazzei won the race to replace him.
The legislature nearly passed sports betting in the past. In April 2026, a tribal-exclusive House bill failed in the Senate 27-21.
“They’ll try to open that compact day one,” Kirschner said of the tribes.
The bigger question, Kirschner said, is what kind of expansion Oklahomans want and whether tribes push for statewide mobile wagering.
Tribes could ask only for mobile wagering on tribal land. They could also use a hub-and-spoke model to go statewide through compacts, similar to Florida’s set up with the Seminoles, without taking the question to lawmakers or voters.
Alabama Republican Tommy Tuberville beat Democrat Doug Jones for Alabama governor and takes office in January.
Tuberville said he will not block gambling expansion, but he wants lawmakers and his office to build one complete package before anything reaches voters.
“I’ve told people that I’m not going to stand in the way of it,” Tuberville said, according to 1819 News. “But I’m not going to go out there and promote it unless we get a complete overlook on how we want to do it from day one. Not just roll the dice and do piece by piece.”
He estimated the work would take “a year or so.” He also told reporters that “everywhere I go, everybody wants it,” and said he would sign off on a lottery if voters approved it.
Alabama came close recently. In 2024, the House passed a package with 70 votes that included a lottery, casinos, sports betting and a compact with the Poarch Band of Creek Indians. The Senate cut it down to a lottery and limited electronic gaming, and the compromise fell one vote short of the 21 needed.
In 2025, Senate President Pro Tem Garlan Gudger ended Sen. Greg Albritton‘s bill within days as “too little, too late.” No gambling expansion measure advanced in 2026.
House Speaker Nathaniel Ledbetter said the lottery’s fate “has a lot to do with whoever’s sitting in the chair across the road,” referencing the Senate’s lack of previous support. The 2027 session opens Feb. 2. Any amendment still needs three-fifths approval in both chambers, and the earliest ballot would likely be November 2028.
Minnesota‘s Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party now controls the governor’s office and both chambers.
The DFL grew its Senate majority from 34-33 to 39-28 and its House margin from 67-67 to 77-57. Rep. Zack Stephenson, the House’s lead sports betting sponsor from recent sessions, is in line to become speaker.
Sports betting has bipartisan support in Minnesota, but DFL lawmakers have largely driven it, especially the tribal-exclusive model most likely to pass. In 2025, Sen. Matt Klein‘s bill came out of a deal among tribes, charitable gaming groups and racetracks. Tribes would hold the online licenses, while charities and the horse racing industry received shares of tax revenue.
That deal still stalled 6-6 in committee. Racetracks, supported by Republicans, argued for more of the revenue, and some DFL members raised concerns about gambling addiction.
The larger DFL majorities might make it easier to move a bill through committees, but the DFL also now carries more responsibility for finding votes within its own caucus.
South Carolina Republican Attorney General Alan Wilson narrowly won the race to succeed Gov. Henry McMaster, who said he would never sign a gambling expansion bill.
Wilson, on the other hand, supports online sports betting with guardrails.
“I don’t want to criminalize conduct that people are doing on their phone,” Wilson told The State. He also signed a pledge to veto any casino bill, even one that voters approve.
Ohio is not the only state where iGaming could come up in 2027 for gambling expansion as lawmakers look to fill budget gaps:
- Illinois: Gov. JB Prizker has floated iCasino as a way to increase tax revenue.
- Indiana: Lawmakers considered iGaming in 2026 without a floor vote, as concerns about cannibalizing casinos persist.
- Massachusetts: An online casino bill went to a study, and its sponsor hopes to build on that momentum in 2027.
- New York: Sen. Joseph Addabbo continues to file iGaming legislation but still faces union and casino opposition.
- Virginia: Lawmakers made progress in 2026, which sets up a test during the 2027 short session.
Fighting lame ducks, educating freshmen on gambling expansion
Iden added that many newly elected officials “have never dealt with or encountered gaming issues. This will be a great opportunity to educate on the economic benefits of our industry and advance meaningful policy to protect consumers.”
Lame-duck sessions could still shift the gambling expansion picture before new lawmakers take office.
“There is still a lot out there that we have to figure out before next session,” said Brendan Bussmann, managing partner at B Global Advisors. “And we still have two months of people who say, ‘Hold on, we still have something to say.'”
Jones said the ballot results should worry an industry that relies on promises of local revenue for gambling expansion efforts.
“One major lesson from this uber-campaign season is that money doesn’t always guarantee the votes,” Jones said. “It may be that voters are not sold on the gaming industry’s pitch of ‘invite us in and we’ll pave the streets in gold.’ The revenue to localities lure may have run its course.”
New legislatures could bring tighter rules
Pappas expects plenty of attention on gambling at the federal level but little legislation.
“I’m still very bearish on the idea that [federal] legislation is likely,” Pappas said. “There will be a lot more grandstanding than legislation coming to fruition, but I would say that federal scrutiny could have repercussions on what states might look to do.”
He said the shifts in state legislatures could still cause problems for operators through higher taxes, tighter advertising limits and new responsible gaming rules like reforms recently passed in Colorado and New Jersey.
“We’ll see more uniformity of stronger restrictions at the state level,” Pappas said. “The tax questions, there has been success beating those back in some instances, some instances haven’t. That doesn’t change much, but I just wonder about some other restrictions on the industry.”
