by Ben Perks
Missouri listened to proposals to legalize sports betting on Tuesday. The Missouri House Committee on Public Policy discussed bills that would let casinos and professional sports franchises offer online and retail sports betting within the state.
The committee heard testimony on two separate but identical bills to legalize sports wagers during the meeting. If Bill HB 2502 (sponsored by Rep. Dan Houx) or HB 2556 (sponsored by Rep. Phil Christofanelli) passes, 39 different sportsbooks skins (sites) will be allowed to launch. These platforms will be distributed between the state’s 13 casinos and six professional sports organizations.
However, an official vote hasn’t been held or planned yet. HB 1666 – a third bill that would also allow mobile sports betting – was not mentioned in the meeting.
Sports Betting in Missouri – Key Info
- The Missouri House Committee on Public Policy discussed two identical bills that would allow the state’s 13 casinos and six professional sports franchises offer sports betting options
- These new proposals would allow a total of 39 skins
- Various sports betting bills were introduced in 2021 but all of them failed to get an official vote
Potential Tax Revenue
The new bills propose to impose a tax rate of 10% on operators. The revenue made would be earmarked to support the education sector in the Show-Me State. A legislative financial evaluation shows that Missouri would likely make skywards of $15 million a year from sports betting taxes.
However, committee legislators questioned the proposed tax rate. Rep. Dottie Bailey asked why Missouri’s potential rate was less than the 15% tax rate imposed in the neighboring state of Illinois. Bailey went on to suggest that Missouri should raise the tax rate and charge online sports bettors a $2 to $3 “admission fee” to access their online accounts.
Who Would Be Able to Offer Sports Betting?
These new sports betting bills would let each casino offer a maximum of three skins but cap the number of skins per casino company at six if they own two or more venues. Missouri sports franchises would be allowed to operate the remaining skins.
The proposed allocation of skins is as follows:
- Affinity Gaming: Six skins
- Boyd Gaming: Six skins
- Caesars Entertainment: Six skins
- Century Casinos: Six skins
- Penn National Gaming: Six skins
- Bally’s Corp.: Three skins
- Missouri professional sports franchises (6): One skin each
Sports Franchises Voice Approval
At the meeting, representatives from the NFL’s Kansas City Chiefs, MLB’s St. Louis Cardinals and Kansas City Royals, NHL’s St. Louis Blues, NWSL’s Kansas City Crest, and MLS’s St. Louis City Soccer Club hall shared their approval of legalizing sports betting in Missouri.
Advocates of the new proposals stated that data shows Missourians want legal sports betting options. According to testimony submitted by iDevelopment and Economic Association (iDEA Growth), data gathered by GeoComply during Super Bowl LVI shows that the company blocked nearly 70,000 attempts made by people in Missouri trying to access betting options in neighboring states.
Currently, people within the state of Missouri have to use offshore-based online sportsbooks such as Bovada or travel to neighboring Illinois where sports betting is legal to place bets.
Check out this sports betting laws tracker to find out about legislation in your state.
Ben is a sports journalist & part-time trader with a passion for finding +EV bets. Ben lives in Madrid, Spain where he enjoys the live poker scene, and sunshine where he covers UFC, MLB, NHL, NBA, as well as tennis betting.
