Missouri’s professional sports teams joined forces on Thursday to submit over 340,000 voter signatures in support of a ballot proposal to legalize sports betting in November. The campaign received help from popular team mascots, including Fredbird from the Cardinals, Sluggerrr from the Royals, and Louie from the St. Louis Blues. These mascots eagerly delivered boxes filled with signatures to the Missouri Secretary of State’s Office in Jefferson City.
Republican Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft will now need to validate the signatures before the proposal can officially be placed on the ballot. The campaign needs approximately 180,000 signatures to meet the qualification requirements. Currently, 38 states and the District of Columbia allow some form of sports betting, with 30 states and Washington D.C. permitting online wagering.
The initiative in Missouri is an effort to bypass the Senate, where legislation for sports betting has repeatedly stalled. Missouri is one of only twelve states where sports wagering is still illegal more than five years after the U.S. Supreme Court paved the way for states to legalize it. The coalition behind the initiative includes the St. Louis Cardinals, St. Louis Blues, Kansas City Chiefs, Kansas City Royals, and the Kansas City Current and St. Louis City soccer teams.
If approved by voters, the proposed constitutional amendment would enable each of Missouri’s 13 casinos and six professional sports teams to offer onsite and mobile sports betting. Teams would be in charge of onsite betting and advertising within 400 yards of their stadiums and arenas. Additionally, the initiative would permit two mobile sports betting operators to be licensed directly by the Missouri Gaming Commission.
The initiative also outlines that a minimum of $5 million annually in licensing fees and taxes would be allocated towards problem gambling programs, with the remaining tax revenues going towards education. State regulators would be required to launch sports betting no later than December 1, 2025, if approved by voters.