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Will Missouri Introduce Legal Sports Betting in 2023?

Flores Brian

Updated as of February 9, 2023 at 10:34 AM EST, this article is a 3 minute and 5 second read. For more information, visit our Twitter and Google News links.

Harrison Butker of the Kansas City Chiefs celebrates with teammates as we share our best Chiefs vs. Ravens prediction.
Harrison Butker of the Kansas City Chiefs celebrates with teammates after kicking the game-winning field goal in the AFC Championship Game at GEHA Field at Arrowhead Stadium. Photo by Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images via AFP.

Sports bettors in Missouri have a significant week ahead.

This Sunday, the Kansas City Chiefs will take on the Philadelphia Eagles in Super Bowl 57. The passionate fans from Missouri will be eagerly watching and supporting their favorite team, most likely choosing the Chiefs as their Super Bowl pick. However, they will have to travel out of state to place a bet, as Missouri has not yet legalized sports betting.

Several lawmakers are pushing for change in Missouri, with six bills in the state legislature aimed at legalizing sports betting. Three bills are in the House and three are in the Senate. In January, two House bills, HB 556 and HB 581, had their first and second readings.

A new path for Missouri sports betting

Rep. Dan Houx is looking to build on small victories from the 2022 legislative session as the House Emerging Issues Committee discusses a hearing on HB 556 in hopes of gaining momentum for the effort.

Last year, Houx introduced a bill to legalize retail and online sports betting in Missouri, potentially allowing for 39 mobile sports betting sites. However, the bill faced obstacles in the Senate as Sen. Danny Hoskins sought to include video lottery terminals (VLT) in the legislation. This led to Sen. Mike Bernskoetter filing an amendment to remove the VLT language, sparking a filibuster and ultimately preventing a vote on the bill.

Houx’s recent legislation closely mirrors that of the previous year. The bill proposes the creation of 39 mobile skins for top online sportsbooks to compete for, and also includes licenses for retail sportsbooks at the state’s 13 riverboat casinos. This proposed legislation has garnered support from a coalition of Missouri’s 6 professional sports teams in St. Louis and Kansas City, as well as 5 out of the state’s 6 casino operators, including Caesars.

The proposed legislation in Missouri would impose a 10% tax on sports betting revenue, slightly lower than the national average of approximately 16%. Historically, bills related to sports betting in Missouri have garnered bipartisan support and successfully passed in the House.

In addition to HB 556, HB 581 has also been sent to the House Emerging Issues Committee and had a hearing on Feb. 8. HB 953 is the third bill in the House related to legalizing sports betting, but a hearing date has not been scheduled for it yet.

Sports betting challenged in the Missouri Senate

Senator Denny Hoskins introduced SB 1 for the current legislative session, which includes a provision for sports wagering. The main focus of the bill, however, is to amend video lottery regulations and establish the Honoring Missouri Veterans and Supporting Missouri Education Act.

Hoskins stated that a bill focused solely on sports betting had a low likelihood of passing through both chambers of the Senate after last year’s legislation did not succeed. He believes that VLTs have a higher capacity to generate taxes compared to sports betting. However, major casino operators in the state, including Penn Entertainment, Boyd, MGM, and Caesars, strongly oppose this idea.

Despite Mike Winter’s opposition to previous bills containing VLTs, he plans to continue testifying against them in the future. However, SB 1 has been sent to the Senate Appropriations Committee for consideration. Additionally, Sen. Tony Luetkemeyer’s SB 30 aims to legalize sports betting in Missouri by categorizing it as a “game of skill.”

Missouri sports betting, if approved, would be subject to a 10% tax and would be conducted on “excursion game boats” or through mobile sportsbooks. SB 279 would classify sports betting in Missouri as a “game of skill” and is currently awaiting a 2nd reading before being assigned to a committee.

The Missouri Chamber of Commerce and Industry also supports separate bills allowing for sports betting in Missouri, making it more challenging for Hoskins to successfully introduce VLTs to the state’s market.

Missed opportunities for Missouri sports betting

According to a recent report by the American Gaming Association, more than 50 million American adults are expected to place bets on Super Bowl 57 in a legal manner, with almost 40% of those bets being made through online sports betting platforms.

Missourians often travel across state lines to take advantage of the active sports betting markets in both of their neighboring states. With sports betting set to launch in Kansas in 2022, residents of Kansas City on the Missouri side of the city will now have access to top Super Bowl betting promotions on mobile sportsbooks such as DraftKings, PointsBet, and Barstool Sports, all within a short driving distance.

In addition to Missouri, St. Louis residents can also access popular sports betting options such as FanDuel and BetMGM by driving across the state border to Illinois, where there are a total of seven mobile sportsbooks available.

Could 2023 finally be the year that sports betting becomes legal in Missouri?

Written By:
Flores Brian
Grant is a former junior B ice hockey player, and a current believer that the Washington Capitals’ aging core still has another Cup run left in the tank. Grant’s owned and operated his own marketing agency since shortly after graduating from Virginia Tech in 2014. He pursued the profession because he figured it’d be a great way to get paid to do something he loves to do, write. After years of hammering puck lines and leading his fantasy football league as Commissioner, Grant started writing about sports betting and the casino gaming industry in 2021 and hasn’t looked back.