Minnesota elects a new legislature on November 3. Will it legalize sports betting?

What happened

Minnesotans vote for all 134 House seats and all 67 Senate seats on November 3, 2026. The House has been split 67–67 between the Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party (DFL) and Republicans, and the DFL holds the Senate 34–33. Whoever controls the next legislature will decide whether sports betting returns to the agenda in 2027.

This year’s attempt did not get far. Senators Nick Frentz and Jeremy Miller introduced SF 4139 on March 4, 2026 to let Minnesota’s 11 tribes, which run 19 casinos, operate mobile sportsbooks under a 22% tax on net revenue. On March 23 the Senate voted 22–44 against re-referring the bill out of the Commerce committee, a hearing on April 15 ended without a vote, and the bill was not taken up again before the May adjournment.

The details

The obstacle is the same one that has stalled every bill since the first serious push in 2019: the tribes want central control of the market, and the state’s two racetracks want a share. A 2024 bill, HF 2000, would have given the tribes control with a 10% tax (20% in an amended Senate version), and it also failed. Every bill so far has set the minimum betting age at 21.

Lawmakers did act on prediction markets. Language from Senator John Marty was folded into SF 4760, which Governor Tim Walz signed on May 20, 2026, but a federal judge has since blocked its enforcement, and the CFTC has sued Minnesota over prediction markets; see its latest suit, against Utah.

What it means

No sports betting bill is pending, and a multi-year wait is more likely than a deal next session unless the tribes, the tracks and legislators reach a long-term agreement. Until then no sportsbook is licensed in Minnesota, and offshore sites that accept Minnesotans are not licensed by any US state; see our offshore sportsbooks page for what that means. Our US sportsbooks page lists books licensed in other states.