Missouri professional sports teams file initiative petitions to legalize sports betting
COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)
After years of falling behind, Missouri professional sports teams want to take sports betting to the voters.
Six professional sports teams in Missouri have filed four versions of an initiative petition that aims to legalize sports betting. All of Missouri's neighboring states have legalized sports betting.
If passed by voters, the petitions would make it legal for Missourians to place bets on professional and college sports teams through casinos or platforms like Draft Kings and FanDuel. Fans could also place prop bets, like whether a player will make a homerun in a certain inning.
Under this petition, there would be a 10% tax on the revenue after the winnings. St. Louis Cardinals President Bill DeWitt said that taxing could change, but the teams feel 10% is a good middle ground.
"People that want to do it are just crossing the rivers on either side of the state and betting and creating generating tax revenues in the other states and leaving Missouri behind," DeWitt said.
The St. Louis Cardinals, St. Louis CITY SC, St. Louis Blues, Kansas City Royals, Kansas City Current and Kansas City Chiefs are teaming up to get this on the ballot.
"The sports teams would get, first and foremost, increased engagement and sort of a new fan base that would watch our games a little different way, which we think is important to help us grow the game and keep our demographics sustainable," DeWitt said.
The petitions are currently awaiting a fiscal note and ballot summary from the Secretary of State's Office. The four versions of the petition are slightly different, but the mobile operators, casinos, and teams interested in getting this on the ballot will pick a favorite version to circulate for signatures.
Missouri has a health appetite for sports betting. According to GeoComply, a company that tracks locations of internet sports bets, Missouri had at least 553,000 attempts to place a bet the first week of NFL games. GeoComply estimates Missouri lost out on $59 million in potential taxes. This is estimating a 15% tax, 5% higher than the one proposed in the petitions.
The Missouri Legislature has tried for years to pass a sports betting bill. Although, it has previously passed the Missouri House of Representatives, the Senate has not come to an agreement.
"We're all very well aware that there's a senator who has kind of stood in the way of passing sports betting in order to maybe get some sort of compromise on video lottery machines," said. Sen. John Rizzo (D-Kansas City), the minority leader.
Sen. Denny Hoskins (R-Warrensburg) is a supporter of sports betting, and introduces a bill every year and plans to do so this coming legislative session. However, Hoskins doesn't approve of amendments that tend to get added to sports betting bills.
"I want to make sure we pass the right bill," Hoskins said. "I'm hopeful that we can come to a compromise and finally push this over the finish line."
A lot of the back-and-forth in the Senate comes from disagreements between casinos and video lottery terminals, machines you can find at gas stations. Video lottery terminals are a gray area in Missouri law, but want to be legal. Casinos don't want them to be legal, leading to the challenges, as Rizzo explained.
The petition needs signatures from 5% of legal voters in six-of-eight voting districts to get on a statewide ballot. More information about the initiative petition process can be found online. It takes a simple majority of voters for an initiative petition to pass.
Initiative petitions themselves are a hot topic in Jefferson City. Republicans made initiative petition reform a priority for the past few legislative sessions, but never got a bill across the finish line.
"You have a lot of competing things happening right now, especially when it comes to sports betting and the initiative petition process," Rizzo said. "We'll see how it all plays out."
