While the Missouri sports betting effort in the Senate, SB30, waits for the Tuesday afternoon Senate session to be marked up for perfection, the efforts in the House continue to move forward.
Rep. Dan Houx’s and Rep. Phil Christofanelli’s sports betting bills, HB556 and HB581, were taken up for perfection Monday and passed with overwhelming support. The bill now moves forward for a third reading and a final House vote.
Houx’s bill allows each casino in the state to have up to three skins for sports betting. It also allows for each of the pro teams in the state to partner with a platform to offer sports betting. Operators would be taxed at 10%. The bill would also allow promotional credit initially before phasing it out over the course of five years.
During the perfection debate, there were multiple amendments to try and raise the tax rate to 15% and 20%, though neither was successful.
Now that the bill is perfected, it will go before the House for a third and final reading and a roll-call vote. There are no more opportunities to add amendments to the bill.
Meanwhile, Sen. Tony Luetkemeyer’s measure is up for perfection Tuesday afternoon. The bills are very similar with the major difference being that Luetkemeyer’s measure doesn’t grant sports teams online licenses and instead creates sports betting zones around major sports venues.
With the perfection debate, it would not be surprising if Sen. Denny Hoskins attached numerous amendments to the measure. He did so last year when sports betting came up without video lottery terminals included in the measure. He has also vowed to do the same during the 2023 effort.
Hoskins introduced a sports betting measure of his own which would also allow for VLTs in the state but it was voted down in committee.
