Residents of Missouri will decide the fate of sports betting in the state at the ballot box in November.
Missouri Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft certified a petition for the ballot measure last week which officially puts it on the ballot in November. The petition was a last resort after state legislators failed to approve a bill to legalize sports betting in the state the last few years.
The petition received lots of support from the state’s professional sports franchises including the Kansas City Chiefs, Kansas City Royals, St. Louis Cardinals, and the St. Louis Blues. They partnered with several sports betting operators to fund and run Winning for Missouri Education, which heavily promoted the petition and collected more than 340,000 signatures.
Following the certification of the petition St. Louis Cardinals president Bill DeWitt III said in a statement, “Missouri is now just one step away from joining most other states in legalizing sports betting and being able to provide millions of dollars to Missouri classrooms. A vote for Amendment 2 in November is the right thing to do for both Missouri public schools and our favorite sports teams.”
Local polling has shown enough support for sports betting to pass the ballot initiative. A poll published by the Kansas City Star earlier this year found that 60 percent of respondents were in favored of sports betting legislation, 25 percent opposed, and 14 were undecided.
While the petition to have sports betting on the November ballot succeeded another petition to allow a vote on a new casino license for the Lake of the Ozarks region was not approved. That petition fell short of the necessary number of signatures needed.
