To provide some perspective on how important is the issue of whether Missouri should legalize sports betting, consider that the money spent by the two sides in the debate aimed at generating votes on Amendment 2 is now in the neighborhood of $60 million.
That is twice as much as has been spent by the campaigns on either side of an abortion rights initiative that’s also on the upcoming ballot.
(In a related eyebrow-raiser, supporters of Amendment 5, a proposal that would permit a new casino near Lake of the Ozarks, Bally’s Corp. and a developer from the Lake area, have spent more than $10 million to promote a measure for which “there is no significant opposition campaign.”)
But even ten million is a drop in the bucket compared to the way folks on either side of Amendment 2 are making the people who own advertising companies consider the merits of Maserati ownership.
On one side, Goliath and Goliath – also known as DraftKings and FanDuel - have provided the bulk of the funding in favor of the measure, which if passed will allow the two companies to apply for statewide licenses for online sports betting, as well as authorizing sports betting licenses for Missouri casinos and professional sports teams.
DraftKings already operates a retail sportsbook across the Illinois state border in East St. Louis and offers mobile sports betting in most of the states that border Missouri.
Ads by DraftKings and FanDuel have featured Missouri public school teachers and highlight the fact that revenues generated by taxes on sportsbooks are to help fund education.
The group leading support for a yes vote, the cleverly-named Winning for Missouri Education, has said sports wagering will funnel more than $100 million into education programs in the first five years after it goes into effect.
Caesars Entertainment, the operator of three of the 13 casinos in Missouri, is the entity leading the campaign against legalization because it opposes “the way this measure is written,” Brooke Foster, spokesperson for Missourians Against the Deceptive Online Gambling Amendment, told the AP.
That’s explained by research released last year showing casino gambling revenue declined in conjunction with increased online sports betting.
“There will definitely be a shift from placing bets in a physical space with a Missouri incorporated casino versus hopping on an app in your living room,” Foster said.
The proposed regulations would give Caesars access to just one mobile sportsbook license in Missouri. Many states that tie mobile sportsbooks to ownership of a physical casino allot at least one license for each property.
Those same regs permit two “untethered” licenses for mobile sportsbooks that aren’t bricks-and-mortar property owners, criteria that favor large national brands, such as DraftKings and FanDuel.
A vote in favor would give the state’s six pro teams, the Kansas City Chiefs, Kansas City Royals, Kansas City Current, St. Louis Blues, St. Louis Cardinals, and St. Louis City SC, the right to open retail sportsbooks inside or adjacent to their stadiums.
Illinois, Connecticut, Maryland, Arizona and Washington, D.C., already permit in-stadium sportsbooks. Polling has proponents of Amendment 2 optimistic. Almost half of respondents are in favor, with a quarter opposed and a quarter undecided. So, not in the bag, but worth betting on.
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