Rep. Crystal Quade has introduced House Bill 2835 which would legalize and tax mobile and retail sports betting in Missouri as well as skill-based slot-style electronic machines.
Try, Try, Try Again
Rep. Crystal Quade’s latest bill is certainly not the first attempt in the Missouri legislature at trying to bridge the gap between advocates in favor of skill-based electronic machines, often called gray machines because of their legal ambiguity, and those who are opposed.
There are very few who have been vocal about saying no to sports betting in Missouri but the waters become murky when attempting to pass stand-alone sports betting bills while leaving the gray machines on the sidelines.
This most recent bill includes both mobile and retail sports betting as well as a provision for the gray machines, which would need the approval of the Missouri Gaming Commission (MGC) and the licenses it would authorize.
Distributors of the skill-based machines would pay an application fee of up to $25,000 while the retailers (truck stops, barrooms, convenience stores) would pay $1000 to apply for a license. Distributors would then be required to pay a $10,000 annual renewal fee.
The sports betting bill mandates only those 21 or older can wager, with a 10% tax levied on the sportsbooks’ adjusted gross revenues. Those proceeds would be earmarked for a state public education fund. Sportsbook application fees would run $150,000 while the annual renewal would reportedly not exceed $350,000 after the first year.
When asked where the taxes would go, Quade said, “Some will go into education, and some will go into public safety. I think those are places that Missourians would be very happy to see this money go.”
Dividing Lines
If one person is to blame for the gridlock on the many sports betting proposals that have been sponsored in Missouri, that legislator would be Senator Denny Hoskins. The sticking point is not sports betting as evidenced by Hoskins putting forth his own sports betting proposals in the past but by tying it to legislation that would legalize skill-based gaming machines.
Hoskins’ proposals were defeated because many of Missouri’s legislators side with the casino operators in the state, who are vehemently opposed to the slot-style copycat games. They believe these machines take a bite out of their profits and remove the exclusivity of slot-style gaming in the state.
And then there is another faction, the professional sports teams in the Show Me State that have formed the Winning for Missouri Education coalition to get sports betting legalized through a voter’s referendum. The owners of the Cardinals, Royals, Chiefs, Blues, etc. have no dog in the fight of the gray machines but they desperately want the revenue that comes with sponsorships from the sports betting operators.
“Staggering numbers of people are crossing state lines to open online accounts, the lack of legalized sports betting is driving people to the illegal market, which is also exploding in Missouri,” said St. Louis Cardinals President Bill DeWitt.
As of this writing, the teams have collected over 100,000 verified Missouri voters’ signatures of the approximately 180,000 they will need before May 5th to get sports betting on the ballot in November. This would circumvent the legislature and bring the question directly to the people.
