Committee Created In Opposition to Missouri Sports Betting Initiative

• A committee has been launched against the Missouri sports betting initiative
• Missourians Against the Deceptive Online Gambling Amendment filed as an official committee with the Missouri Ethics Commission earlier this week
• The committee believes the amendment would create loopholes to allow sports betting operators to pay zero tax revenue to the state

Opposition to Missouri’s sports betting initiative is starting to mount in the Show-Me State.

Missourians Against the Deceptive Online Gambling Amendment filed as a committee with the Missouri Ethics Commission on Sept. 10, officially opposing the sports betting initiative that will appear on the Nov. 5 general election ballot.

It’s the first official opposition campaign to the initiative after Judge Daniel Green ruled against a lawsuit that tried to strip a constitutional amendment question to legalize Missouri sports betting on from general election ballot.

Sports Betting Benefits Corporations

According to a press release from the campaign, the amendment will only benefit the out-of-state corporations that created the initiative.

“Amendment 2 is a bad deal for Missouri. This deceptive measure was written by and for the financial benefit of its out-of-state corporate sponsors and funders,” said Brooke Foster, a spokesperson for Missourians Against the Deceptive Online Gambling Amendment, in a statement.

Foster notes that licensed sports betting operators will be able to deduct promotional credits and free play, which could led to them paying “zero gaming taxes for sports wagering.”

There are currently several states in the country that allow operators to deduct promotional credits from their overall gross gaming revenues. The current ballot question in Missouri would set the sports betting tax rate at 10%.

The committee cited a Wichita Beacon article that noted Kansas sports bettors wagered more than $194 million in last year’s Super Bowl, but Kansas only received a little over $1,134 in sports betting tax revenue.

“We are building a broad coalition and are prepared to wage a vigorous campaign to educate voters across the State and ensure the measure is defeated,” Foster said.

Lawsuit Did Not Stop Sports Betting Initiative

The committee’s creation came just four days after a lawsuit attempting to strip the ballot of the sports betting initiative question was defeated.

The lawsuit, which was filed on Aug. 21 by plaintiffs Jacqueline Wood and Blake Lawrence, claimed the Winning for Missouri Education campaign came up short for valid signatures in Missouri’s first and fifth Congressional districts and Ashcroft’s determination of sufficiency was incorrect.

The  plaintiffs alleged that Secretary of State John “Jay” Ashcroft improperly calculated the number of signatures because he failed “to take the total number of people who voted for governor in 2020, multiply that number by eight percent, and then divide that number equally among Missouri’s eight Congressional Districts.”

A judge determined that the plaintiffs did not provide sufficient evidence to show Ashcroft incorrectly calculated the necessary valid signatures and ruled in favor of the defendants.