With Missouri Senate Chaos, Ballot Initiative Might Be Best Chance for Sports Betting

This likely proves the best method to legalize sports betting in the Show Me State, as legislative efforts have stalled over the last three years and likely won’t fare better in 2024.

Legislation Faces Uphill Battle

Three sports betting bills have already been filed so far in Missouri, but likely have little chance to be approved.

Senators Denny Hoskins (R-21) and Tony Luetkemeyer (R-34) both filed sports betting bills in Missouri two weeks, which are both similar to bills they filed last year. Luetkemeyer’s bill, SB 852, will legalize online and retail sports betting in the Show Me State, but does not include VLTs. Hoskins bill, SB 824, the Missouri Returning Heroes Education Act, will feature similar sports betting legalization to  Luetkemeyer’s bill, but also legalize video lottery terminals in the state.

Rep. Dan Houx (R-54) also introduced a bill this week, HB 2331, to legalize retail and online sports betting in the state with a tax rate of 10% on adjusted gross revenue. Under his proposal, Missouri’s 13 casinos would be able to offer retail sports betting and partner with up to three operators for online sports betting.

Missouri professional sports team would be able to offer online sports betting and partner with one operator. Additionally, two standalone online sports betting operators could be licensed in the state as well.

The bill is similar to legislation Houx introduced last year. It was approved by the House, but stalled out in the Senate.

Missouri Senate Mired in Chaos

The bills will likely face a similar fate in the Senate this year. Prior to the session, Hoskins vowed to block any sports betting bill that did not include VLT legalization. Since the session started earlier this month, the Senate landscape has completely devolved.

On Tuesday, Senate President Pro Tem Caleb Rowden (R-19) announced four Senators, who call themselves the Freedom Caucus, would be stripped of their respective committee chairman seats and have demoted parking privileges. Rowden levied the measures after the members held up Senate for more than 11 hours two weeks ago to force action on bills to make ballot initiatives harder to pass.

Two of these senators, Hoskins and Sen. Bill Eigel (R-23), have been instrumental in blocking sports betting legislation for the past several years. Both have filibustered any hearing of a sports betting bill on the Senate floor that does not also include the legalization of VLTs.

Rowden and Hoskins will be running against each other this year for Missouri’s Secretary of State position.

RELEASE –> The beginning of the 2024 legislative session in the Senate has been nothing short of an embarrassment. A chamber designed to be occupied with civil, principled statesmen and women has been overtaken by a small group of swamp creatures who, all too often, remind me…

— Caleb Rowden (@calebrowden) January 23, 2024

While sports betting is not at the center of this argument, or the punitive action taken against the Senators, it does not bode well for any sports betting bill’s chances to be approved in 2024.