Missouri sports betting push losing steam as VLT issue hamstrings chances

Efforts to legalize sports betting in Missouri are once again facing failure as legislators remain stuck in neutral over the inclusion of video lottery terminals (VLTs) in enabling legislation.

The current legislative session ends on May 30, leaving little time to push through legislation, with Senate bill 1 pushed back for additional consideration by the Senate Appropriations Committee on April 23.

Senate Bill 1, or the “Honoring Missouri Veterans and Missouri Education Act” is authored and sponsored by Senator Denny Hoskins, and allows for the licensing of video game lottery terminals across the state as well as the legalization and regulation of sports betting.

A secondary bill, SB 30, which legalizes sports betting but does not include VLTs has seen a variety of amendments introduced, adopted, and voted down, but is still languishing in the legislature, having been placed on the informal senate calendar for “perfection”.

This process will see SB 30 passed for another debate on the Senate floor, where further amendments can be introduced and the bill’s language perfected, ahead of a final debate and vote.

Amid this legislative impasse, legislators and stakeholders have turned on each other, with Senator Hoskins reportedly unwilling to consider sports betting legalization without legalizing VLTs at the same time.

In an interview with Missouri-based commercial radio station KMOX, Hoskins expressed his frustration at the deadlock, citing the issue of language added to SB 30 as the reason for its failure to launch.

“In my mind, I view them all as kind of one bill, one language – they all deal with gambling,” Hoskins told KMOX.

“Whether we talk about the video lottery terminals, whether we talk about sportsbook, whether we talk about the unregulated machines that we see in many of the truck stops and bars and taverns and convenience stores and fraternal organizations … in my mind, it all relates to gambling and should be one discussion, and that’s what we’re going to do,” he added.

House bills 581 and 556, both introduced early in January, have still not advanced off the House floor, with bill 556 referred to the Senate Appropriations Committee earlier this month for further debate.

Expressing his own feelings on the impasse to political newspaper The Missouri Times, St Louis Cardinals president Bill DeWitt III pulled no punches.

“I would describe it as an extremely high level of frustration with not being able to bring this to a vote,” DeWitt III said.

“We have an issue that is extremely popular with our fans, popular with the politicians, and it’s blocked because others wanna hitch a ride on our wagon, and they have enough clout to bully their way onto the bill.

“They won’t get what they want, but I guess they don’t care that we don’t get anything either. It is really childish behavior,” he added.

Missouri’s neighboring states of Kansas, Illinois, Iowa, and Tennessee have all legalized and launched sports betting, with Nebraska and Kentucky legalizing but not yet launching the vertical.