Legalized sports betting in Missouri has been pushed to next year, as state Senate Republicans failed to find a way forward. Sports wagering’s prospects looked good in January but sputtered by May.
The House passed a measure in March that would have permitted players 21 years and older to bet on college and professional sports teams online or at sports venues and casinos.
Senate Majority Leader Caleb Rowden said, “You’re going to have unfinished business. You don’t get to do 15 big things in a year. It’s just never going to be that way.”
Governor Mike Parson, expressing indifference, stated, “It depends whether you want sports betting or not, whether it’s a failure. I mean, I don’t know about that. Everybody has an opinion and whether it goes through the legislative process, that’s up to the legislators. I don’t know if that’s disappointing one way or another.”
A major stumbling block among Senate Republicans was video lottery machines. Senate President Dave Schatz estimates more than 25,000 so-called gray machines currently operate statewide.
He said, “The attorney general has turned a blind eye to this issue and lets this continue on. There are millions of dollars every day going through that should be going to education. If I’m disappointed in one thing that didn’t get done, that’s one thing that needs to be stopped in this state.” Schatz noted the unregulated video lottery machines proliferating in gas stations and convenience stores offer no consumer protections.
State Senator Denny Hoskins, who has filed sports betting bills for years, again sponsored a measure that would have allowed 5,000 video lottery games in the state, with a maximum of seven per location, such as truck stops, fraternal and veterans clubs and entertainment districts around the six professional sports teams’ stadiums. However, state Senator Mike Bernskoetter’s amendment, eliminating all video lottery machines, put an end to the debate over Hoskins’ bill.
Another reason sports betting failed in the Senate was because casinos rejected a 15 percent rate during the final hours of session. Hoskins said, “The casinos want a golden ticket. They want all the revenue to themselves and don’t want to provide the kind of revenue we need to help fund our veterans’ homes. Casinos basically killed this because of their greed.”
Hoskins said all of Missouri’s professional sports teams were on board with legalizing sports betting, but the casinos were not. He said this summer he plans to meet with stakeholders on both sides of the issue and to make sure lawmakers address the topic again next year.
He stated, “I think we’re going to see a lot of states realize that the casinos are getting really rich on this and it’s causing a lot of problems that those stakeholders, such as casinos, are not paying into the state to help out mental health when in regard to problem gambling.”
Gambling addiction was another reason sports betting legislation failed, observers said. State Senator Bill White said, “This is detrimental to society. How many more people are we going to have that are going to need some sort of assistance because someone spent a little too much money on any of these forms of gambling?” White added he sees video gambling machines at gas stations on his drive home from the Capitol. “What are the social costs dealing with this? How much money isn’t going home?” he stated.
