Following a lengthy filibuster led by state Senator Denny Hoskins, Missouri state Senators adjourned without voting on the sports betting bill HB 2502, which previously passed the House.
The episode began when Hoskins added language to the Senate’s substitute bill legalizing video lottery terminals and adding 5,000 additional VLTs to those that have proliferated in fraternal and veterans’ organizations and truck stops. Then state Senator Mike Bernskoetter filed an amendment removing the additional VLTs Hoskins wanted. Hoskins then led an hours-long filibuster into the night.
In Missouri, games of chance are only allowed in casinos. However, VLT supporters have long claimed the machines are games of skill; they have won a few lawsuits with that stance. The state’s 13 casinos oppose the VLTs, which would be subject to state regulation and taxes.
Hoskins asked Bernskoetter several times, “Did the casinos put you up to this?” Bernskoetter eventually asked the chamber to vote on his amendment. But Hoskins said he had 153 amendments for the sports betting bill, one for every $1 million in tax revenue he said would be lost if sports betting was legalized without VLTs. “My bill would bring into the state $163 million that would go toward education and our veterans homes and cemeteries here in the state, versus the House version of sports book which would bring in less than $10 million to the state,” Hoskins said.
The filibuster went on nearly four hours, then Senate President Pro Tem Dave Schatz adjourned the chamber “under the rules.” No vote was taken on the two House sports betting bills, effectively leaving them for dead. But supporters said there still are several paths to legalizing sports betting this session, which ends May 13. For example, a different House bill could be amended or one of the half-dozen Senate bills, including one filed by Hoskins, could advance.
