By BRENT MARTIN
St. Joseph Post
Sports betting, once a promising issue in Jefferson City, now seems dead this legislative session.
State Sen. Tony Luetkemeyer of Parkville, who carried the legislation in the Senate only to run up against a filibuster, is frustrated.
“I think it’s kind of silly that we’re at the point where we are right now where people in Kansas City, in St. Joe, people over in St. Louis are literally driving on Sunday before a Chiefs’ game across state lines to Kansas or Illinois and placing their sports bets and then driving back home,” Luetkemeyer tells KFEQ/St. Joseph Post.
Luetkemeyer ran into a filibuster mounted by a fellow Republican who insists on adding Video Lottery Terminal legislation to the measure. Senator Denny Hoskins of Warrensburg wants to expand V-L-Ts as they are called beyond current law that restricts them to the state’s 13 casinos.
Luetkemeyer says there is only a narrow path to approve sports wagering in Missouri, an effort backed by all the professional sports teams in the state.
Luetkemeyer originally proposed a 10% tax on sports bets. That was raised to 15% during Senate debate. Budget projections estimate the state would reap $30 million in tax revenue its first year with cities that have casinos cashing in with an extra $3.2 million.
Luetkemeyer says Missouri is falling behind, because of political infighting at the state Capitol.
“Now every single border state around Missouri has some form of sports wagering, whether it’s a physical sports book in a casino or online sports, mobile wagering, every single state that is a border state to Missouri now has sports wagering, except Missouri.”
Time is running out. Luetkemeyer says a lot of decisions must be made in a short amount of time.
“We’ve got a fair amount to do and not a whole heck of a lot of time to do it, but this is what most sessions look like,” Luetkemeyer says “Ninety percent of the legislation that ends up passing will pass during the last couple of weeks of session.”
HB 556 passed the Missouri House on a 118-35 vote.
The Missouri legislative session ends May 12th with the budget due the week before adjournment.
This article has been updated since first published.