Missouri’s sports betting ballot measure remains in jeopardy after a lengthy hearing Thursday resulted in no immediate action.
Judge Daniel Green did not dismiss the case Thursday, despite requests by the defendants supporting the sports betting measure.
The delayed ruling comes after both sides spent hours questioning more than a dozen witnesses. The plaintiffs and the defendants called a wide range of election officials, signature experts, campaign staff, and other stakeholders to question individual signatures’ verification and the processes in doing so.
Both sides went back and forth about how, when, and the means that signatures were certified or rejected. This included case-by-case reviews over whether individual signatories were eligible voters, had used nicknames, changed their name, or were deceased, among other certification criteria.
The ruling about whether or not the sports betting measure remains before voters partially hinges on less than 100 signatures.
Missouri mandates that citizen-initiated constitutional amendments garner signatures from at least 8% of the votes cast in the prior gubernatorial election. A campaign must also reach that threshold in six of the state's eight federal congressional districts.
The Secretary of State's office that validated the signatures and Winning for Missouri Education, the campaign group behind the sports betting measure, argued they had legally collected enough valid signatures in six of the eight districts. The campaign did not attempt to collect signatures in the state’s two largest rural districts.
Missouri's sports betting campaign today filed its latest brief arguing that the sportsbook referendum should remain on the ballot, hours before a court hearing that opponents hope will help remove the question from votershttps://t.co/GBSJso6CBT
— Ryan Butler (@ButlerBets) September 5, 2024
The Secretary of State’s office approved the question for the ballot, but rejected a significant number of signatures. The narrow final approval margins opened legal challenges.
The suit, filed by two Missouri residents, questioned the authenticity of signatures in the St. Louis-based district as well as the broader means of tabulating signatures. The plaintiffs argued state officials should have used a prior set of congressional maps, which would have changed each districts’ threshold, leading the signatures to fall short of the required total.
Missouri law requires the ballot to be finalized by Sept. 10.
Missouri sports betting impact
Thursday’s hearing leaves open the possibility that Missouri voters could see a sports betting question on their ballot that would be retroactively rejected.
The Sept. 10 ballot finalization deadline means there’s little time for Green to make a definitive ruling. Both sides hope for a definitive ruling before next week's deadline that would prevent more chaos.
A scenario could come sometime before the Nov. 5 election that allows the question to remain on the ballot and be voted upon. Another scenario could see a ruling that means, even though it's printed on the ballot, Missouri voters actually couldn’t approve legal sports betting.
Complicating matters further; the state’s first absentee ballots will be sent out later this month.
If permitted to be approved by voters, more than a dozen statewide mobile sportsbooks could enter the state. Missouri’s 13 riverboat casinos as well as six major pro sports venues could also open retail books.
DraftKings and FanDuel, the U.S. national sports betting market share leaders, would be the likeliest books to launch. The regulatory structure enacted if voters approve sports betting would give them an option to enter the state without having to partner with a brick-and-mortar casino, a caveat in the law subtly opposed by Missouri casino operators.
Those operators include Caesars, Penn Entertainment, Bally’s, and Boyd Gaming, all of which could launch their respective online sportsbooks in the state.
If the court sides with the plaintiffs, the “zombie” ballot measure could mean sports betting proponents would have to try again in the 2026 election cycle. This could be complicated by the unsuccessful push in 2024; discouraged by the 2024 failures, advocates could wait until 2028 – or longer.
It also remains to be seen if DraftKings and FanDuel, the 2024 campaign's largest financial backers, as well as the pro sports teams, will be prepared to start over two years from now.
Besides Oklahoma, seven of the remaining eight states bordering Missouri offer legal sports betting. That includes Illinois and Kansas, which share Missouri’s two major metro areas of St. Louis and Kansas City, respectively.
Background
Missouri sports betting advocates have tried to legalize sportsbooks since shortly after the Supreme Court struck down the federal wagering ban.
Multiple bipartisan sports betting legalization efforts were stalled in successive legislative sessions by lawmakers, led by then-Sen. Denny Hoskins, hoping to tie sportsbook laws with regulations for unregulated video lottery terminals (VLT). These terminals, which act like slot machines and are available in hundreds of convenience stores and truck stops statewide, have divided lawmakers.
By tying the sportsbooks with the larger VLT problem, lawmakers resolved neither issue.
The pro teams trying to place a sports betting-related question on the ballot in November in Missouri say they submitted 340,000+ signatures to that end.
— Geoff Zochodne (@GeoffZochodne) May 2, 2024
"Winning for Missouri Education" only needs 180,000 to be valid to get certified by the Secretary of State's office: pic.twitter.com/8V2T9fSplh
Proponents, led by DraftKings and FanDuel along with the state’s professional sports teams, worked around the legislative stalemate by funding a voter petition drive. Supporters collected close to 400,000 signatures ahead of a May deadline.
The Secretary of State’s office verified enough signatures to qualify the measure for the ballot in August. The plaintiffs filed their suit days before a deadline to challenge the measure from the 2024 ballot.
