Vermont Public’s Mitch Wertlieb spoke with senior political correspondent Bob Kinzel to find out what legalized sports betting in Vermont would look like.

Bob Kinzel: The floodgates to legalize sports betting really opened up in 2018 when the U.S. Supreme Court struck down a law that prohibited this activity. And since then, dozens of states have legalized sports betting. Vermont is the only state in the Northeast that still bans it.

St. Albans Rep. Mike McCarthy is the chair of the House Government Operations Committee, and that’s the panel that’s initially looking at this bill.

“I think that most of us acknowledge that there are many Vermonters we heard testimony, there are thousands of Vermonters that are currently going just over the border or at least digitally going just over the border to place bets, and that that’s a loss of potential revenue for the state,” McCarthy said.

I think backers of the bill would like to see it get through the House this year and then the Senate could consider it next year, because it could be tough to make it all the way through the legislative process