Legalized sports betting Missouri
ST. LOUIS — While Cardinals fans wonder if the team will make any more offseason transactions in the offseason ahead of the 2024 Major League Baseball season, it appears the club could be ready to make more moves as part of a push to legalize sports wagering in Missouri.
A coalition of Missouri pro sports franchises, led by the Cardinals, filed several versions of proposed ballot language with the Secretary of State’s Office in September that would allow professional sports teams and casinos to offer sports betting onsite and through online platforms that could be used anywhere in the state. Some of the different versions would allow up to four online sports betting companies to receive approval to operate directly from the state.
Under the proposed initiative, Missouri would impose a 10% tax on adjusted gross sports betting revenue, after the payout of winnings and promotional bets to customers.
The teams have held out hope for the General Assembly to act instead, but various proposals have died due to disputes over pairing sports betting legalization with regulating slot-machine-style games that have popped up in convenience stores, gas stations and other locations.
The legislative session opened in Jefferson City on Wednesday, and when asked about a path forward for sports betting bills, House Speaker Dean Plocher, R-Des Peres said “I wouldn’t bet on it, no pun intended…I want there to be,” he said, while also raising the spectre of concerns over the potential for online sports betting sites managed by entities in Russia or China.
Asked Thursday about the status of a drive to collect petition signatures to qualify for a ballot question, St. Louis Cardinals President Bill DeWitt III told Spectrum News Thursday that more news on that front could be coming “very soon.”
“We are working on an IP process. We do still hold out some hope that perhaps a legislative solution could be reached in the session but as Speaker Plocher mentioned we have some hurdles, particularly in the Senate, but we’ll see. I remain cautiously optimistic.”
The clock is ticking on both an initiative petition front and a legislative avenue. Signatures must be submitted to the Secretary of State’s Office by 5 p.m. on May 5. The legislative session ends May 17.
A further hurdle for an initiative petition could come if lawmakers approve a bill that would ask voters to make it more difficult to amend the state’s constitution, which currently only requires a simple majority vote. If the legislation is passed, that question could be put to voters in August, ahead of a November ballot that could in theory have questions regarding sports betting and abortion rights.
