St. Louis Mayor Tishaura Jones and Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas endorsed Amendment 2, the question on next week’s ballot on whether residents want to legalize Missouri sports betting.
Amendment 2 would set the Missouri sports betting tax rate at 10%, cap promotional credits at 25%
The ballot campaign is also backed by Winning for Missouri Education, a PAC funded by DraftKings and FanDuel. Amendment 2 would set the sports betting tax rate at 10%. Promotional credits are capped at 25% as well. The measure would also allow Missouri’s professional sports franchises along with the state’s 13 casinos to operate retail and online sports betting. Two online betting platforms would be eligible to receive a license.
Missouri bettors are ravenous
The appetite for sports betting in Missouri has long gone unsatiated. The Show Me State was one of the first to take up proposed legislation even ahead of the repeal of PASPA in 2018, but lawmakers have so far been unable to get any of the dozens of bills over the line.
Now voters will try to do it themselves. As it stands today, many of those voters routinely travel out of Missouri to place wagers in one of the neighboring states with legal betting.
Geolocation leader GeoComply has already identified over 200,000 online sports betting accounts created by users who reside in Missouri. During the first three weeks of the NFL betting season alone, the company processed (blocked) more than 11 million location checks from devices located in Missouri trying to access legal sportsbooks elsewhere.
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Now, Missourians are traveling to neighboring states just to place wagers.
“Every time a Missourian has to drive across the river to Illinois to place a sports bet 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 benefits our local economies and classrooms.”
Missourians have attempted to place more than 11 million wagers since the beginning of football season
Earlier this week, the St. Louis and Kansas City Building Trades Councils announced their endorsements. The Kansas City Star and the St. Louis Dispatch then followed suit.
An economic study revealed that legal sports betting would produce $335 million in total gaming revenue in its first year. That amount is projected to grow to almost $560 million by year five.v The total tax revenue estimate is $4.7 million in the first year, rising to $38.7 million in year five. Over five years, up to $105 million would be allocated for Missouri schools.
Missourians have attempted to place more than 11 million wagers since the beginning of football season. These recent finds are based on new data released by GeoComply this week.
Those attempts were linked to 216,000 mobile sports betting accounts in legal sports betting markets.
