Missouri’s professional sports team coalition looking to bring legal sports betting to the Show Me State got the wheels in motion this week.
According to a report from the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft signed off on several ballot options as Missouri’s sports betting proponents hope to get one of them in front of voters in 2024.
As the legislative efforts to legalize sports betting have fallen short, a coalition led by MLB’s St. Louis Cardinals is pushing to allow the people to decide. The coalition, which is also backed by the St. Louis Blues, Kansas City Chiefs, Kansas City Royals, and Kansas City Current, must now decide between eight ballot options to send out for petition.
The coalition is picking up the check for the cost of running the petition, which will need 170,000 signatures to get a question on the ballot for voters next year.
What’s next?
Cardinals president Bill DeWitt III told The Post-Dispatch that the coalition’s next task is discussing which ballot version to choose with the online sports betting industry, and then determining how to collect the necessary signatures.
That will occur “in the next week or two,” DeWitt said.
Meanwhile, the Missouri legislature must decide how it wants to bring up sports betting in 2024 within its chambers. The House passed a sports betting bill in 2023, but it never made it past the Senate because of the controversial video lottery terminals that were attached to the legislation.
“I would be thrilled if we could get legislative action because then we wouldn’t have to do it,” DeWitt told the Post-Dispatch. “I’m hopeful, but I’m also being realistic.”
What it looks like
The coalition’s proposal includes language that would give sports teams and 13 state casinos the ability to partner with as many as four sportsbook operators, which would pay a 10% tax rate. That would bring in an estimated $29 million a year to the Show Me State.
Neighboring states like Tennessee, Illinois, Kentucky, Arkansas, and Kansas all have some form of sports wagering, meaning Missouri is missing out on potential revenue due to residents traveling out-of-state to place bets.
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