Local leaders weigh in on Missouri sports wagering initiative
By Jacob Meikel
The push for legal sports wagering continues in Missouri, with the possibility of putting the issue to the voters in November after measures have repeatedly stalled in the state legislature.
A poll conducted in June by Emerson College showed that among 1,000 registered voters in Missouri, 38.3% say they would support the legalization of sports wagering if the measure was on the ballot.
Currently spearheading the push to get sports wagering on the November ballot is Winning for Missouri Education, a committee backed by Missouri’s major pro sports franchises exercising the initiative petitioning process. In May, the committee turned in more than 300,000 signatures as part of a ballot proposal.
Sports wagering has had its runs through the Missouri General Assembly over the years. Bills have made it through the Missouri House of Representatives but have been struck down in the Senate before they can reach Gov. Mike Parson’s desk for approval.
Rep. Dean VanSchoiack, R-Savannah, who has served in the Missouri House for the past four years has seen sports betting measures tried only to fail. With efforts now to legalize sports betting resorting to initiative petitioning and putting the decision in the hands of voters, VanSchoiack said sometimes that’s just how the process works.
“It’s hard to get bills passed, it’s supposed to be hard,” Van Schoiack said. “It’s a good thing it’s hard to get bills passed or we’d pass too many of them.”
Missouri Sen. Tony Luetkemeyer, R-Parkville, has been a strong voice to legalize sports wagering. Luetkemeyer emphasizes the lost opportunity in revenue by not having sports betting legalized in Missouri.
“People will leave to border states that have legalized sports wagering, like in Illinois, like in Kansas, and that tax revenue, which would normally be earmarked for education in Missouri, is now leaving Missouri, going across state lines and now subsidizing schools of our border states,” Luetkemeyer said.
Luetkemeyer also cites consumer protection as a reason to legalize sports betting. He said Missouri residents who don’t live near a bordering state where sports wagering is legal may turn to what he calls “nefarious” third-party websites to place bets.
Missouri House Speaker Dean Plocher, R-St. Louis, echoes the same sentiment.
“Those are not safe platforms,” Plocher told News-Press NOW. “We don’t know how they’re working their algorithms and things like that. If we were to pass sportsbook here, I think it would be more secure, regulated under Missouri law in Missouri for Missourians and the tax revenue would certainly benefit Missouri.”
State Representative and former St. Joseph mayor Bill Falkner, who is running for another term in the state house this fall, said unregulated gaming equipment, otherwise known as “gray machines,” is what has held back the passing of sports wagering in the past. When asked about leaving the decision up to voters if the measure is on the November ballot, Falkner said it depends on how such a measure is written.
“I haven’t read the language, but as long as it’s just sports wagering and not the gray machines, I think it has a chance of going through,” Falkner, R-St. Joseph, said.
Missouri is one of 12 states in the U.S. to not have legalized sports betting and one of two states with groups actively pushing for it.
