For three months, Kentuckians have been able to wager bets on some of their favorite sporting events, from college football to international soccer and proposition to parlay bets.

The world of sports betting is limitless and all available on your phone.

And our first of three stories, Kentucky editions.

June Leffler looks at the gains and potential losses sports betting poses to gamblers and the commonwealth.

We'll follow.

Sandy's.

Gaming and racing opened just two months ago in Ashland.

It brings patrons from far and wide.

Get all get together and come, you know, come hang out and drink a beer and have fun.

Folks try to win big on slots or sports betting.

Mainly NBA.

NBA, NCAA football.

Really what we're on.

Yeah.

All over it.

We'll come here every Saturday, Sunday we're all over.

It's pretty much one of the ways to get customers to come into the casino who maybe don't play slots.

Sports betting is not Sandy's bread and butter, but partnering with the sportsbook was a no brainer.

The sportsbook came last right after it was passed.

We got it off the ground in like two months, so it was not planned.

But once it did pass, we took the reins.

Most sports betting happens online, but all sports betting companies that want to operate in Kentucky, like many states, have to partner with a local brick and mortar racetrack or gaming facility.

So the idea was that if you make it such that new operators in the state for online or mobile that they partner with a brick and mortar facility, that that would really provide the existing business with a stake in the new market expansion.

And we'd have less of this cannibalization effect.

In turn, places like Sandy's get a cut of mobile sports betting, not just what's bet on their turf.

Because this sports betting company has to have the bricks and mortar partner or the bricks and mortar partner has something a very high value to the sports betting company.

And so in exchange for that value, that's where some of that rub share comes from.

That's a win for the whole gaming industry.

And according to state officials, all Kentuckians.

After a couple of big sports weekends, the total amount wagered in Kentucky jumped to over $656 million.

That's 629.5 million in mobile wagering and 26.8 million in retail.

Wager Kentucky earned $8 million in tax revenue just two months after sports betting came online in the state, exceeding expectations.

These tax dollars will support the oversight of sports wagering, establish a problem gambling fund and and primarily help our pension systems here in Kentucky.

The retirement system is still underfunded.

By tens of billions of dollars.

Sports betting won't shore up the pension funds liabilities.

But House Minority Floor Leader Representative Derrick Graham hopes it could offer some relief to state workers in the form of an extra check or a cost of living increase.

When they retired, it was a good payment.

But, you know, after ten, 11, 12 years, you know, the cost of living has increased.

And so that's what they're dealing with.

And so they are asking us, we serve you.

We're now asking that you serve us.

Thankfully for Kentucky's pension system, sports betting has really taken off.

It is an incredible start.

And if it continues, we will significantly exceed the $23 million in projected revenue from sports wagering.

What makes it so popular and profitable?

For starters, the sports book is in the palm of your hand.

Think about all the different times that you've been sitting around, maybe your little board and you grab your phone and you look for your favorite app and you open it up and you start playing on it.

The same is now available with sports betting apps.

That means more kinds of people are betting to.

So, for example, we've seen a bigger increase in women who bet on sports prior to having sports betting on a mobile phone.

Places you might bet on.

Sports might not be quite as welcoming to women.

They might be kind of old boys clubs.

Right.

And the betting options are limitless from the kinds of wagers.

In a baseball game.

Right?

Betting on the outcome of an inning, betting on other sorts of prop or proposition wagers or prop bets.

That's what that's short for on various sort of micro events that might exist within the games.

We see parlay wagers in which you string together a variety of bets.

And so if every single one of those outcomes hits, then you win the parlay.

To the sports themselves.

In Kentucky, folks can bet on college and pro ball to e-sports, the rodeo and chess.

Gambling as a whole is is risk taking.

It's something that human beings have done for a very, very long time.

So all the positive of all the negatives, this all comes together in one really complex subject, and it really is something that should make us think.

For Kentucky Edition, I'm June Leffler.

We'll follow up tomorrow on the topic of problem gambling, what resources are and aren't available for those needing help.

The National Problem Gambling hotline is one 800 gambler.