Georgia, Texas, and Minnesota are among the states expected to consider sports betting legislation in 2025. 

The Texas legislature meets every 2 years. It has failed to pass legal sports betting in both 2021 and ’23. Betting bills fell short in Georgia and Minnesota last year. 

In 2024, for the first time in the 6 years since PASPA was overturned by the Supreme Court and cleared the way for legalized sports betting nationwide, no state passed legislation to approve legal betting apps.

Voters in Missouri narrowly passed a sports betting measure in the “Show Me State” on Election Day. Retail and online betting is expected to launch before the start of football season in the fall. 

The ballot was backed by the state's MLB, NFL, NHL, MLS, and NWSL franchises. Each of those professional teams will be able to "create a retail sports betting location within a district near its stadium” and partner with a "branded online betting platform." The 6 companies with casinos can operate a retail sportsbook and offer an online platform. Two other licenses will be made available to online betting companies that do not partner with either a casino or professional sports team.

State-By-State 2025 Odds To OK Sports Betting 

 Here’s a state-by-state breakdown of the states expected to consider sports betting legislation in 2025, along with the odds and probability of passage. 

State-By-State Sports Betting 2025 Legalization Breakdown

With legalization in Missouri, 39 states, plus Washington DC and Puerto Rico, have legalized sports betting. Those states and DC encompass about 68% of the U.S. population. The two most populous states in the U.S. – California and Texas – remain on the outs. In Florida, which is 3^rd in population, the Seminole Tribe operates a monopoly via the Hard Rock Bet app.  

Minnesota

Legislators will try for the 3^rd year in a row to get a sports betting bill to the governor’s desk. The push to legalize Minnesota sports betting fell short in the legislature in 2024 because the major stakeholders involved could not reach consensus. Those include native tribes, parimutuel sites, and charities that run their own gaming entities. The native tribes and parimutuel sites are said to be talking ahead of the 2025 legislative session. 

Georgia

Sports betting returns to the state legislative agenda in 2025. Georgia is bordered by 3 states – Florida, Tennessee, and North Carolina – that offer online betting. Strong online markets in all 3 states may offer enough of an incentive to finally get a deal done in 2025. 

There are a few steps necessary for sports betting to become a reality in Georgia. 

First, the legislature must pass bills through the House and Senate that legalize both gambling, in addition to an enabling bill that would legalize sports betting and casino gambling. 

Each bill must receive a 2/3^rd majority in each body to pass. 

Then, the bills must be signed by Gov. Brian Kemp. He has been a long-time supporter of legalized betting. 

Finally, both measures must be approved as Constitutional Amendments by voters in a statewide election in November. 

Despite having a pair of sports-betting-related bills that passed the Georgia Senate, the state legislature adjourned its 2024 session on March 29 without either bill receiving a vote in the full House. This year's session was bitten by a partisan divide over voting integrity. That issue should not be on the agenda in 2025, offering a better chance to get the bi-partisan cooperation needed for passage. 

The sports betting enabling bill was rewritten in the House committee. The newer version trimmed funding guaranteed for pre-K and problem gambling programs. That killed any chance of bi-partisan cooperation, which was needed to get the 2/3rds vote required in the House because of the Constitutional amendment requirement. Since the bill never had the votes to pass, it never made its way to the House floor before Sine Die, which fell in the first hour of March 29. 

The bill would have had the Georgia Lottery Corporation oversee sports betting and make sports betting a lottery game. It would allow those 21 and over to wager on professional and collegiate events. Up to 16 sports betting operators would have been allowed. Five of Atlanta’s professional sports teams: the Braves, Falcons, Hawks, Dream, and Atlanta United. The Augusta National Golf Club, the Professional Golf Association, and the Atlanta Motor Speedway would receive one license each.

Seven licenses would be open to sports betting providers through an application process overseen by lottery officials. The lottery corporation also would receive one license.

It was the fourth consecutive session in which legislators discussed sports betting without sending a bill to the governor's desk. 

Oklahoma 

Oklahoma’s Native American tribes hold exclusive rights to gambling in the Sooner State. Gov. Kevin Stitt has tried for 2 years to forge a consensus to work with the Tribes to get a bill passed. He failed again in 2024. 

Meanwhile, Sen. Casey Murdock filed a bill to legalize sports betting and allow anyone who can afford to operate a sportsbook in the state. Under Murdock's proposal, Tribes could negotiate sports betting compacts with the governor but would need approval from the Oklahoma Legislature’s Joint Committee on State-Tribal Relations.

Nothing will happen here unless the Tribes are made part of the solution. The Oklahoma Indian Gaming Association remains firm in its belief that the state's gaming compacts give their members exclusive control over all forms of betting.

Texas 

Any discussion of sports betting in Texas begins and ends with Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, As president of the state senate, Patrick wields immense clout. Texas legislators meet every two years, so Texas sports betting will be back on the table in 2025. 

A bill to legalize Texas betting apps cleared the full House in 2023 but died in the Senate. As is his standard practice, Patrick refused to bring any bill to the floor of the Senate because it lacked enough votes to pass with solely Republican support

Legalizing sports betting in Texas requires a constitutional amendment, which is why a two-thirds majority vote and a ballot vote in November following its passage is necessary. 

A similar effort to legalize sports betting in Texas fell short in 2021. 

Sports betting in Texas got a significant boost when a group including the Adelson family of Las Vegas gaming fame purchased a controlling interest in the NBA's Dallas Mavericks. But they want any sports betting measure to include an online casino component. 

Miriam Adelson was a significant financial contributor to Donald J. Trump’s successful 2024 presidential campaign. And Patrick is rumored to be angling for a position within the Trump administration. 

Perhaps those 2 factors could come into place in getting Patrick to change his perspective allowing a betting bill to pass, and/or to help him push enough Republicans into the pro-betting camp. 

The NBA, MLB, NHL, and NBA teams in Texas, along with the PGA Tour, NASCAR, and several other entities formed the Texas Sports Betting Alliance to combine their efforts to get betting up and running in the Lone Star State.

If Texas does allow sports betting, it would become the largest state in the nation to do so with 29.53 million people. Currently, Florida is the most populous state that has sports betting with 21.78 million people. 

South Carolina

The fate of betting in South Carolina will be driven by the success of neighboring North Carolina. A bill to legalize sports betting (HB 3749) fizzled in the 2023-24 legislative session. It would have allowed anyone 18 or over in the state to wager on up to as many as eight sports betting apps. Look for a similar bill to be pushed in 2025. 

Alabama

Legal betting has the support of Gov. Kay Ivey. Two bills that would have put sports betting, casino betting, a state lottery, and pari-mutuel wagering to voters in 2024 were approved by the House on February 15. But a Senate committee removed the sports betting and casino provisions from the bills. Allowing just a lottery and the pari-mutuel wagering. 

HR 151 would have put a proposed amendment to the Alabama Constitution to make gambling legal in front of voters. It passed by a 70-32 margin with five more votes than needed for the 3/5ths requirement. But it never made it to the Senate floor. 

The other bill (HB152) would have legalized had it retained its original form:

• Online and retail sports betting
• A state lottery
• Up to 10 casino sites with table games & slot machines

It's been 26 years since voters in Alabama rejected a proposed state lottery. 

California

The Golden State holds the Golden Ticket for the growth of sports betting in the United States. California is the nation’s most populous state. But don’t expect legal sports betting apps to be available in California unless a significant change occurs among the state’s Native American tribes. 

Mobile betting in California remains a far-off dream for bettors and books alike. A much publicized, $600 million ballot push to pass two sports betting proposals miserably at the polls in 2022. Another effort to get a pair of ballot items passed in 2024 was mercifully ended in January. Neither push had the support of the Native American tribes, either.

"To go back and do another ballot referendum without the Tribes buying in is a fool's errand," long-time gaming lobbyist Bill Pascrell III told bookies.com. Given the amount of money at stake for both the state and the books themselves, the push will continue. But don't expect live, legal, online sports betting in California for several years.