Casino News: MGM Partners with Astros, Minnesota Passes Betting Legislation & More

This week’s casino news has an update on the progress of legal sports betting in three different states. We’ll start in Texas with a Houston Astros partnership has brought the topic up again.

MGM Partners With Houston Astros

MGM Resorts has continued its marketing expansion as they have announced a brand-new partnership with the Houston Astros of Major League Baseball. The gambling agreement is set to be the very first in Texas for the casino company themselves. This is a bit of an interesting situation to monitor as Texas has been in a battle to legalize sports betting for years now and has mostly been opposed to it. The state doesn’t have any commercial casinos either, which makes this partnership a bit of a peculiar one.

What MGM is hoping for is to utilize their partnership with the Astros to help themselves out when it comes to their Louisiana numbers and start building brand awareness in Houston. They will be aiming to offer Astros-themed promotions only in Louisiana and have a base of awareness when and if Texas legalizes sports betting.

Along with this agreement, MGM will be able to get signage at Minute Maid Park. They will also get an outfield wall sign and even some promo messaging behind home plate that can be seen during broadcasts.

Minnesota House Passes Sports Betting Legislation

Democratic Minnesota state Sen. Scott Dibble, flanked by Senate Democrats. (AP Photo/Steve Karnowski)

While Texas is moving slowly on legal sports betting, Minnesota could be well on its way. It was just announced that the House was able to come to an agreement on a bill that legalizes online and in-person sports betting. However, despite this sounding like a massive win, there is still a large cloud hanging over this bill.

This current proposal would allow for indigenous groups to have exclusivity on sports betting. When it comes to the members of the Minnesota Senate, they are apparently not in favor of that at all. Plus, the House didn’t even clear the bill by a large margin as the final vote was 70-57. There have also been talks regarding racetracks in the state getting their own sports betting as well. While this is progress, many feel that it’s not enough to get this across the finish line.

At any rate, the probabilities are looking like residents in Minnesota are going to have to wait until at least 2023 for a bill to officially pass through. When that day eventually comes, sportsbooks would likely take about a year to fully launch and get the market set up. Unfortunately, it is looking like a two-year wait at least.

Kansas Governor Signs Sports Betting Bill

While Minnesota is progressing but can’t quite get the deal done, Kansas can. Residents of the state will wait no longer as legislation for online sportsbooks has made it to the finish line. It was just announced that the Kansas Governor, Laura Kelly, just signed the sports betting bill that came to her desk. With her signature on the document, sportsbooks are expected to be launched at the end of 2022. It should be right in and around the start of both the NFL and college football seasons.

Along with this bill, multiple establishments will be allowed to put up sports betting kiosks on their properties. Those establishments include some restaurants, casinos, and other forms of entertainment venues like sports stadiums.

Kansas is just yet another state that has been able to legalize some form of sports betting. With this recent move being made, there are now 35 states in the country that offer sports betting. As this continues to grow in popularity, there is likely to be a handful of other states that follow this trend.