Missouri’s sports teams are once again seeking to legalize sports betting in 2024 as Secretary of State John Ashcroft approved eight motions to secure a ballot ahead of the 2024 election cycle.
The motion seeks to make an amendment to the Missouri constitution, which would require a public vote to be held at the 2024 election in November.
Under the proposals, the Missouri Gaming Commission would allow licenses to online operators, gambling boats, pro sports teams and mobile operators. Operators would be taxed at 10% with funds going towards education and gambling harm education and treatment.
Other parts of the eight proposals differ slightly but all of them propose a 10% tax rate to be used to fund the state’s Compulsive Gambling Prevention Fund.
The motions were filed by the Missouri Pro Sports Betting Coalition, which comprises the Kansas City Chiefs, Kansas City Current, Kansas City Royals, St. Louis Cardinals, St. Louis Blues and St. Louis SC and aims to bring sports betting to the Show Me state after years of attempts.
Now that the Secretary of State has approved these measures, the Missouri Pro Sports Coalition must gain at least 170,000 signatures on a petition in order to make the final ballot ahead of the Nov. 5 election.
This is because to get on the ballot, a measure must have the support of 5% of registered voters in six of eight Congressional districts in the state.
It marks another attempt to legalize sports betting in Missouri after the last couple of attempts failed over a dispute over the role of VLT games in the framework.
Senator Denny Hoskins has repeatedly let it known that he will obstruct the path for legalized sports betting in Missouri if his fellow lawmakers did not support VLT legislation.
Last year there were three sports betting bills and in one debate, Hoskins spoke for over an hour to protest about the lack of VLTs in one of the bills.
He stated: “They want to get rid of the illegal sports betting by legalizing it but they don’t want to get rid of the unregulated video lottery terminals by legalizing video lottery terminals. I mean, it’s hilarious sometimes when they make that argument.”
