A bill to legalize sports betting in Oklahoma has now been filed in the state legislature. News9 reports House Republican Rep. Ken Luttrell has filed House Bill 1027, which would amend gaming compacts to give tribes the option to offer betting on sports both in casinos and on mobile phones. Luttrell filed a similar bill last session but it didn’t reach the floor for a vote. Thirty states plus D.C. have legalized sports betting since the Supreme Court gave states the option in 2014. Kansas became the latest state to legalize sports betting just a few months ago.
Twenty-nine more COVID-19 fatalities bring Oklahoma’s Provisional Death Count to 17,412. In its weekly update Thursday, the State Health Department reported nearly 4,200 new positive tests for the Coronavirus the week ending Dec. 24. The number of active cases has decreased to just under 9,400. The agency also reported 307 COVID-19 patients in Oklahoma hospital beds including 71 in intensive care and 15 children.
The Oklahoma Sooners went down to the 13th ranked Florida State Seminoles in the Cheez-It Bowl Thursday night.
It was an exciting back-and-forth game, with Florida State prevailing on a go ahead field goal in the final minute. OU did get a chance with just a few seconds left.
TV Announcer: Gabriel, he’s going to be sacked. And that might do it. The final seconds winding down. Florida State is going to win it. Oklahoma can’t get lined up. The clock goes to all zeroes. And it’s a 35-32 ‘Noles win!
So ends a frustrating 6-7 season for the Sooners, after dealing with former head coach Lincoln Riley and starting quarterback Caleb Williams leaving the program for USC, the hiring of a new head coach, the looming transition from the Big XII to the SEC, and the continuing uncertainties of the transfer portal. There’s no doubt the OU football program faces a critical period in its storied history as it heads into this offseason.
Coming up on the latest edition of Capitol Insider, KGOU general manager Dick Pryor and Quorum Call’s Shawn Ashley countdown their top 5 stories of 2022, including the adoption of highly restrictive abortion laws in advance of Roe v. Wade being overturned. Here’s Shawn Ashley.
Ashley: Oklahoma passed four anti-abortion bills during the 2022 regular session. The most restrictive declares that life begins at conception and prohibits abortion except to save the life of the mother. Two of the others made performing an abortion a felony punishable by up to 10 years in prison. And since then a group of Republican lawmakers have asked for an attorney general’s opinion regarding the legality of at home abortion pills and whether the women who use them can be charged with a crime related to the death of their baby.
You can hear the full list of Capitol Insider’s top stories of 2022 later today during All Things Considered and on the Capitol Insider podcast. New episodes drop Friday afternoons.
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