A proposed invoice to legalize sports activities wagering in Missouri will start winding its manner by way of the state legislature this week.
A freeway signal welcomes guests to Missouri. A state legislative committee this week will start contemplating laws to legalize sports activities betting. (Picture: Artistic Commons.)
On Tuesday, the Missouri Home Particular Committee on Public Coverage will convene a listening to on the laws, HB 2331, sponsored by Rep. Dan Houx (R-Warrensburg).
The laws is considered one of a number of ongoing efforts to deliver sports activities wagering to Missouri, considered one of only a dozen states the place it stays unlawful. The invoice would enable the Present Me State’s 13 riverboat casinos to start accepting sports activities bets and cellular sportsbook operators to start accepting bets positioned by web customers within the state.
New Evaluation
Forward of the listening to, legislative researchers on Monday launched a detailed fiscal analysis of the proposal. If handed and absolutely applied, authorized sports activities betting would generate about $7 million in new training funding in its first yr, rising to $35 million by 2029, based on the evaluation.
The invoice would tax sportsbooks’ adjusted gross receipts at 10%, permitting operators to deduct promotional bets from that calculation. The tax deduction for promotional bets would section out over 4 years.
State officers count on 24 candidates for sports activities wagering licenses, together with 13 riverboat casinos, eight cellular sportsbook operators, and three licensees affiliated with skilled sports activities districts.
Functions for sportsbook licenses include a $100K up-front software charge and require operators to submit a accountable playing plan.
Compulsive Playing Fund Improve
The invoice additionally consists of a number of provisions requiring operators and regulators to deal with anticipated issues with compulsive playing. The Missouri Gaming Fee and Division of Psychological Well being are required to develop a report on the “neuroscience, psychology, sociology, epidemiology, and etiology of compulsive playing.”
Regulators count on to retain an out of doors contractor to conduct the analysis at an anticipated price of $500K. The primary report is due on the finish of 2025, with further stories due each three years. It’s unclear whether or not the analysis prices will come from the Gaming Fee’s common funds or the Compulsive Gamblers Fund, based on the evaluation.
The state Division of Psychological Well being says it might want 25 new compulsive playing counselors subsequent yr, up from seven presently licensed therapy suppliers. Prices to the company would exceed $227K within the subsequent fiscal yr and stay equally excessive for the next three years.
The invoice would require an annual $500K contribution to the state Compulsive Gamblers Fund, topic to legislative appropriations. That will be a big improve from latest years. For Fiscal 2025, the Department of Mental Health is requesting about $153K for the fund. As of December 31, the fund had a steadiness of $102,884, based on the legislative evaluation.
Prospects Murky
Whereas sports activities betting has beforehand sailed by way of the Missouri Home and will achieve this once more this yr, the possibilities of the invoice in the end changing into regulation relaxation on the opposite aspect of the state Capitol, the place related payments have stalled lately. Nonetheless, state senators try once more.
Sen. Tony Luetkemeyer (R-Buchanan) earlier this month filed SB852, which might take an analogous strategy to legalizing sports activities betting within the state, though it might tax sportsbooks at the next 12% price.
In the meantime, Missouri’s skilled sports activities groups, together with the St. Louis Cardinals, are pushing for a poll measure that will let voters determine the destiny of sports activities wagering within the state.
