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To be or not to be — that is the question in Missouri’s fight to keep sports betting on the ballot this November. At first, it was a yes, then a lawsuit threatened a no, and now, it appears to be a hard yes.
It’s been a wacky month following this story in Missouri — and wacky might be an understatement. However, we’ve done our best to recap the situation and get a better gauge on whether sports betting in Missouri will be legal soon or not.
Courts Rule In Favor Of Keeping Betting On The Ballot
On September 5, the gavel heard ‘round Missouri sounded. Cole County Circuit Judge Daniel R. Green ruled in favor of Secretary of State John Ashcroft, allowing the Missouri sports betting measure to remain on the ballot. The judge heard both sides of the story before settling on the decision.
Ironically, no one quite knows who exactly was on the opposite side trying to prohibit voters from deciding on the issue. Officially, in-state political consultants Jacqueline Wood and Blake Lawrence filed the suit against the Secretary of State. However, who influenced them — and funded them — is still a giant mystery.
Legal Sports Report has been on top of the story. They mentioned an anonymous insider had this to say about the mystery:
“This suit contains an incredibly odd mix of political bedfellows and the lengths to which whatever interests are behind the suit are going to mask their identities makes the whole thing all the stranger and juicier.”
Lawsuit Claims Fell Short
Let’s get into the specifics of this lawsuit, namely what was the basis of it. Welp, the lawsuit alleged the secretary did not meet the signature requirements needed to get on the ballot to begin with. The rule is to get on the ballot, it would require at least 170,000 signatures. Not only that, but signatures would need to come from 8 percent of voters in six of eight congressional districts.
The lawsuit found fault with the latter requirement. It claimed the group behind the signature petition — Winning for Missouri Education, which was backed by the local pro sports teams — was using an outdated congressional map. Thus, it failed to meet the requirements with the redrawn map.
Of course, the courts did not agree with these claims, hence why they ruled in favor of Secretary of State John Ashcroft — and not the consultants, and whoever backed them. Speaking of which, there’s speculation the backers might’ve been operators…
Did Caesars Fund The Mystery Lawsuit?
Rumors are swirling Caesars might’ve been the mystery backer. It makes sense too, right? Obviously, they have deep pockets as one of the biggest gaming companies around. Two, they might have something to lose from this too.
How you, ask? The current proposition allows for just one skin for casino operators and two untethered sportsbook licenses. Caesars owns three casinos in the state so they’d get a license for sure. However, they likely want the untethered licenses — that’s DraftKings and FanDuel — to not get a crack at the market.
Caesars has contributed $4 million to fund the Missourians Against the Deceptive Online Gambling Amendment campaign. It launched earlier this month (right after the aforementioned court ruling) and Caesars is the only sportsbook operator against it.
They split their campaign contributions based across their brick-and-mortar locations. For instance, Tropicana St. Louis chipped in $1.3 million. An additional $1.3 million came through Isle of Capri Boonville Casino and $1.4 million from Harrah’s North Kansas City. Additionally, Caesars’ Enterprise Services division contributed $156,202 to the efforts.
Betting Bill Finding Strong Support
Now that the lawsuit has been dismissed and the ballot has been finalized — here’s the hundred, if not billion, dollar question: is this thing going to pass?
Support appears to be building. Polling on Missouri sports betting shows that 52 percent of voters are in favor of the proposal, while another 23 percent remain undecided. To help sway the opinions of the latter group, money is being thrown around.
DraftKings and FanDuel, the nation’s largest sports betting platforms, have collectively contributed more than $21 million to fuel the Winning for Missouri Education coalition. And as we said earlier, the area pro teams — from the Chiefs to the Cardinals — have publicly backed this initiative.
For what it’s worth, the state ranks 47th in average teacher salaries. Tax money from betting — it’ll be a 10-percent flat tax — will go straight into Missouri’s education fund, which you’d think would trickle down to teacher pay. Eilers & Krejcik recently released a study that believes Missouri could earn $105 in taxes over the next five years from betting.
Now we play the waiting game until November 5 — the day a new president will be crowned AND also the day we find out if Missouri becomes the latest state to legalize in the U.S. Sports betting exists in Kansas, a neighboring state, and has likely benefited from Missouri locals crossing state lines to bet. We’ll see if that continues come November. Missouri has the chance to become the 39th state to legalize.
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