Kentucky State Senator Julian Carroll has prefiled legislation that would allow sports wagering in the state.
The legislation, Bill Request 236, would amend the state’s current gambling legislation to include sports betting at any horse racing tracks and off-track wagering facilities.
It would also include a 25% tax on sports wagering receipts, with tax revenue to be split between the state’s retirement scheme, Educational Excellence Scholarship Fund and the Kentucky Thoroughbred Development Fund.
Carroll — who served as Governor of Kentucky from 1974 to 1979 — has made attempts to pass sports betting legislation in Kentucky before, but the bills did not get a hearing during the 2018 or 2019 Legislative Sessions.
On 1 September, legal sports betting will launch in Indiana, which shares a border with Kentucky close to the state’s main population centers.
While no operator has announced a launch date for mobile sports betting in Indiana, casinos set to launch sports betting in the Hoosier state include Tropicana Casino Evansville, on the Kentucky-Ohio border.
Legal sports betting launched in neighboring West Virginia in August 2018 and mobile sports betting was reintroduced to the state earlier this month. Illinois and Tennessee have also passed sports betting legislation.
The bill will be considered in the 2020 legislative session, which begins in January next year.