One day after a seven-hour hearing, a Missouri judge on Friday (6 September) ruled that a ballot initiative that would allow for statewide mobile sports betting will stay on the ballot.
Cole County Circuit Judge Daniel R Green issued his decision Friday afternoon, hours after lawyers submitted proposed judgements. The decision came less than 24 hours after the hearing.
After more than five years of failed attempts at legalising sports betting in the state legislature, voters now get a shot.
The initiative case was one of two ruled on in Cole County Circuit Court on Friday. Amendment 3, which would make abortion legal in the state, was deemed invalid. Judge Christopher Limbaugh made the ruling, which proponents say they will appeal. There is a Tuesday deadline for a decision – which is when ballots are scheduled to be printed.
The wagering initiative, Amendment 2, is one of two gambling proposals Missourians will vote on. Amendment 5, if passed, would allow the state gaming commission to award one additional gambling boat licence to operate in the Lake of the Ozarks region. There are currently 13 gambling boats – which can be non-floating structures within 1,000 feet of the water – in Missouri.
Here’s a look at the wagering initiative
The Missouri wagering initiative would allow legal digital and retail sports betting. Platforms would be allowed to tether to existing casinos and professional sports venues. The text of the ballot measure states:
Do you want to amend the Missouri Constitution to:
allow the Missouri Gaming Commission to regulate licensed sports wagering including online sports betting, gambling boats, professional sports betting districts and mobile licences to sports betting operators;
restrict sports betting to individuals physically located in the state and over the age of 21;
allow licence fees prescribed by the Commission and a 10% wagering tax on revenues received to be appropriated for education after expenses incurred by the Commission and required funding of the Compulsive Gambling Prevention Fund; and
allow for the general assembly to enact laws consistent with this amendment?
State governmental entities estimate onetime costs of $660,000, ongoing annual costs of at least $5.2 million and initial licence fee revenue of $11.75 million. Because the proposal allows for deductions against sports gaming revenues, they estimate unknown tax revenue ranging from $0 to $28.9 million annually. Local governments estimate unknown revenue.
Proponents have already begun advertising and marketing. The initiative will be the only one dealing with legal digital gambling anywhere in the US on the presidential ballot.
The 95 signatures that could have knocked measure off the ballot
The wagering lawsuit was brought by a pair of political consultants. It is unclear what their connection to or interest in legal gambling is.
They argued the secretary of state (SoS) incorrectly verified signatures collected in support of the Missouri wagering initiative. They also argued that the SoS used old district maps to determine where people live.
In his 12-page judgment, Green wrote: “Lawsuits seeking to remove an initiative petition from the ballot after it has been certified as sufficient by the Secretary are highly disfavourable.”
He also wrote that courts must “act with restraint, trepidation, and a healthy suspicion of the partisan who would use the judiciary to prevent the initiative process from taking its course”.
Overall, Green wrote that the plaintiff’s lawyers did not present enough evidence to prove that 95 signatures were invalid when collected. If Green ruled those signatures ineligible, it would have meant there were not enough valid signatures to qualify the initiative.
