Missourians will have their say at the ballot box this coming Tuesday as to whether they want sports betting in the Show Me State. But it should be noted that powerful political forces are aligning behind sports betting in Missouri as the election draws near.
Big City Mayors Say Yes
It has been a circuitous route to get to this point where Missouri voters will choose whether sports betting comes to their great state as opposed to leaving it in the hands of the gridlocked legislature. And on the way to forming a well-funded political action committee, Winning for Missouri Education, and getting hundreds of thousands of verified signatures to get Amendment 2 on the ballot, support for mobile and retail sports betting has now hit a fever pitch only days before the votes are cast and counted.
St. Louis Mayor Tishaura Jones and Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas have recently come out in support of statewide sports betting, while the St. Louis Blues, St. Louis Cardinals, St. Louis FC, and Kansas City Royals each donated $333,000 to Winning for Missouri Education, according to filings at the Missouri Ethics Commission.
“Every time a Missourian has to drive across the river to Illinois to place a sports bet, it is a missed opportunity for our city, our state, and our passionate sports fans,” Jones said. “Missourians are betting on sports; we just aren’t getting any of the benefits. Amendment 2 will change this by allowing Missourians to place bets in a regulated, safe way that actually benefits our local economies and classrooms.”
Two years ago, Kansas City Mayor Lucas posted the following on his LinkedIn page: “Missouri legislature, please get the sports betting deal done or at least allow Missouri cities sitting in four counties with over 500,000 people to elect to opt in and produce lots of revenue for our teams, businesses, and state tax coffers. Or we will, once again, lose revenue and people to Kansas. It gets old.”
Polls Favor Sports Betting
The tidal wave of support that the sports betting measure has received this year has had a reverberating effect on the electorate. Winning for Missouri Education has received over $40 million alone from mobile sports betting titans FanDuel and DraftKings, which is used for advertising blitzes all across the state and a campaign to make people aware that taxes raised off sportsbooks’ profits will go to bolstering the state’s education system.
Estimates are that the 10% tax rate on sportsbooks adjusted gross revenues would reap over $28 million annually for the state’s tax coffers.
The threshold to pass Amendment 2 legalizing sports betting in Missouri is one vote more than 50%. According to the latest poll conducted by Emerson College between September 12 and 13, 52% of the 850 people polled said they would vote yes, while 25% said no, and 22% were unsure.
The measure also has bipartisan support, with gubernatorial candidates Republican Lt. Gov. Mike Kehoe and Democratic Rep. Crystal Quade both endorsing sports betting.
“We are proud to have a growing list of leaders from all political backgrounds standing together to support Amendment 2,” Winning for Missouri Education spokesperson Jack Cardetti said in a statement.
