The MLB St. Louis Cardinals and a number of other different skilled sports activities groups in Missouri are prepared to bankroll a statewide initiative to ask voters in the event that they wish to legalize sports activities betting subsequent 12 months.
St. Louis Cardinals President Invoice DeWitt III stands exterior his workplace in Busch Stadium on Aug. 10, 2023. DeWitt says his household’s Main League Baseball staff is prepared to pay for a statewide sports activities betting referendum if lawmakers in Jefferson Metropolis proceed to mothball such legislative efforts. (Picture: St. Louis Public Radio)
Seven states neighbor Missouri. Six — Arkansas, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, and Nebraska — have legalized sports activities betting. Solely Oklahoma has not. In latest legislative years, many Missouri lawmakers have launched or supported laws to affix the six neighboring sports activities betting states.
A sports activities betting statute this 12 months simply handed the state Home of Representatives by a 118-35 vote. However the measure stalled in a Senate committee, with Sen. Denny Hoskins (R-Warrensburg) once more cited for the stalemate.
Hoskins, in 2022, filibustered a sports activities betting invoice that additionally gained Home assist. Hoskins isn’t towards sports activities betting, per se, however believes that if the state needs to develop gaming, the Common Meeting ought to concurrently go a authorized framework for controversial so-called “talent gaming” machines generally present in eating places and bars.
The Missouri Common Meeting has adjourned for 2023 and isn’t due again in Jefferson Metropolis till January 2024.
Referendum Effort
The Cardinals and different Missouri professional sports activities groups are looking for to take the sports activities betting matter into their very own fingers. The Missouri Structure permits residents and teams to provoke laws by a constitutional modification through a referendum.
However the referendum initiative course of is dear, as a petition should first be crafted and submitted to the state’s lawyer normal. If the lawyer normal indicators off on the language, the initiative backers should acquire about 180,000 signatures to put the referendum on the subsequent election poll.
Cardinals President Invoice DeWitt III, the son of staff proprietor William DeWitt, advised reporters this week that the group is prepared to fund the sports activities betting initiative. In states the place sports activities betting is authorized, leagues and groups have skilled a substantial enhance in fan engagement and curiosity.
DeWitt says the Cardinals, NFL Kansas Metropolis Chiefs, MLB Kansas Metropolis Royals, and NHL St. Louis Blues are prepared to bankroll the marketing campaign.
“We nonetheless hope to attempt to get one thing performed within the legislature subsequent 12 months. But when not, we’re ready to go to the folks immediately,” DeWitt mentioned.
Together with these “large 4” sports activities groups talked about above, the MLS Sporting St. Louis and the Kansas Metropolis Present within the Nationwide Ladies’s Soccer League are able to pitch in for the referendum effort.
Merely Majority Wanted
If the St. Louis and Kansas Metropolis skilled sports activities groups determine to provoke a sports activities betting referendum marketing campaign and efficiently acquire not less than 180,000 legitimate signatures from state residents, the poll query would want solely a easy majority to amend the Missouri Structure to allow such playing.
DeWitt says the groups are in talks with the Sports activities Betting Alliance, whose members embrace BetMGM, DraftKings, FanDuel, and Fanatics, to craft the sports activities betting referendum language. Although these specifics are nonetheless being ironed out, the early draft suggests imposing a ten% tax on gross sports activities betting income. No cellular licensing payment has but been advisable.
If sports activities betting comes someday to Missouri, the groups need the suitable to include a retail sportsbook into their venues and associate with a third-party on-line sportsbook. The groups say the state’s casinos could be afforded related privileges underneath the referendum.
