Kentucky to Change its Culture With Sports Betting

by George Michael

The state of Kentucky is just now preparing to introduce a new bill to the local population that could potentially change the whole culture of the state.

New governor Andy Beshear pretty much won his office based on the promise of introducing state-approved gambling both in offline casinos and sports betting activities.

However, the state’s authorities are yet to confirm how this new law will manifest itself into the state’s culture. Will it be just random offline casinos dotted around the state or just a few offices in the main cities operating several websites? Maybe even both.

Authorities are now conducting meetings with the governor and going over existing laws in order to determine which ones they will have to repeal and which ones they will have to simply enhance to make the new amendment work.

Backed by gambling supporters

As already mentioned, Beshear managed to gain his position thanks to his support of the development of casinos in the state. His campaign focused on the amount of income the state could generate through commissioned casinos and sports betting locations and then diversify this across several other industries.

Furthermore, Kentucky residents have been slowly but surely exposed to gambling via online sources in the form of deposit bonuses just to get their feet wet.

Soon enough, this introductory campaign turned into customer farming for other states where online gambling is legal. Beshear saw the outsource for money from the state, which would prove to be quite the issue further down the road.

This was pretty much a tried and tested tactic in the gambling world. Similar strategies, like Norwegian no deposit bonus offers, have been conducted in the Nordic countries in Europe. First, the companies would offer free games to users and then convert them to loyal customers, despite the fact that gambling in the country was mostly illegal if it didn’t belong to the government.

People quickly saw that there was more value to be found in the private sector and switched even though it’s not as safe as an SOE (state-owned enterprise).

Justifying the bill to Congress

No matter how many people support the idea of legalizing gambling in the state, Congress will still have to be convinced of the abundance of benefits and the minimization of issues.

Beshear’s strategy is to link gambling and education together, justifying the bill by proposing a $2,000 pay increase for local school teachers, as well as pensions with the revenue generated from gambling tax.

The more revenue the state generates from gambling, the more they can add to teachers’ salaries and further diversify into higher education, such as state colleges and institutes.

It’s quite an old trick to get the folks in the education industry on one’s side, but Congress is well aware of it.

Whether or not Beshear manages to deliver on his promise of legalizing gambling in Kentucky will soon be determined.