A Missouri sports betting initiative will appear on this November’s general election ballot after a judge ruled that a legal challenge to the measure did not have grounds.
On Sept. 6, Circuit Court of Cole County Judge Daniel Green ruled in favor of Secretary of State John Ashcroft and Winning for Missouri Education’s efforts to place a constitutional amendment question to legalize Missouri sports betting on the upcoming ballot.
The sports betting amendment measure was approved on Aug. 13.
However, a lawsuit filed on Aug. 21 by plaintiffs Jacqueline Wood and Blake Lawrence alleged that the Winning for Missouri Education campaign failed to garner the required number of valid signatures in two Congressional districts.
The challenge argued that the calculation had been made using outdated district boundaries. In doing so, said the plaintiffs, the measure failed to meet the mandatory thresholds and it was therefore incorrect to state that the betting amendment had received the necessary support.
Plaintiffs also posited that Ashcroft should have started with the total number of votes in Missouri’s last gubernatorial election, calculated 8% of that number, and then divided that evenly by eight and required the same number of valid signatures in each district.
They argued that as a result, the measure had actually fallen short by 95 signatures.
Lawsuit failed on all counts
In a 12-page judgment, Green wrote that, “lawsuits seeking to remove an initiative petition from the ballot after it has been certified as sufficient by the Secretary are highly disfavorable.” The judge ultimately ruled that the lawsuit had no legal justification on any count and did not provide enough evidence that 95 signatures were invalid.
The judge stressed that Ashcroft used the district boundaries that were in effect at the time of the most recent gubernatorial election, “which is what those sections call for.” He ruled that there was no issue with the methodology used to calculate the votes, agreeing with the defendants’ assertion that the plaintiff’s suggested 8% methodology has never been used to calculate necessary valid signature totals in Missouri.
Green added that no past case had been found in which a plaintiff succeeded in removing an initiative from the ballot through a certification challenge.
“Plaintiffs have not offered sufficient justification or evidence to call the Secretary’s certification of sufficient of the Sports Wagering Petition into question,” wrote the judge.
The Winning for Missouri Education campaign said in a statement that the ruling is “a big victory for Missourians.
“Today’s ruling, while expected, is nevertheless a big victory for Missourians, who overwhelmingly want to join the 38 other states that allow sports betting, so that we can provide tens of millions in permanent, dedicated funding each year to our public schools. For too many years, Missourians have watched as fans cross state lines to place sport bets, which deprives our Missouri public schools of much-needed funding. A vote for Amendment 2 in November will bring those dollars back to Missouri classrooms.”
Sportsbooks, teams advocate for mobile betting
The Missouri sports betting push has received significant support from sports teams and sportsbooks this year.
The Kansas City Chiefs, St. Louis Cardinals and Kansas City Royals have all supported the initiative, which has come at a time when neighboring Kansas is reportedly attempting to prise the Chiefs and/or the Royals away from Missouri to move over the border.
Meanwhile, the U.S. market’s two sports betting leaders, FanDuel and DraftKings, have contributed nearly $10 million in support of the campaign, more than $6 million of which went towards helping to gather signatures.
There is significant public support, too, according to a recent poll from the University of St. Louis which found that 50% of voters likely to participate in the upcoming election would vote in favor of statewide mobile sports betting platforms, while only 30% were definitively opposed.
Judge Green’s ruling means that after more than five years of failed attempts to legalize sports betting in Missouri, voters will get their say in two months’ time. If the majority approve, mobile sports betting would be legal in the state starting next year and every sports team and casino could partner with an online sports betting operator to offer mobile betting.
