Missouri House of Representatives Passes Sports Betting Bill

• The Missouri House of Representatives approved the sports betting bill by a vote of 115-33
• The bill will now move to the Senate
• If approved, online and retail sports betting will be legal in the state

The Missouri sports betting bill is now moving to the Senate.

The Missouri House of Representative approved HB 2502, a bill to legalize retail and online sports betting for state casinos and Missouri professional sports franchises, by a vote of 115-33, just one day after being preliminarily approved.

Retail and Online Sports Betting Will Be Legal

If approved by the Senate, all it will require is Missouri Gov. Mike Parson’s (R) signature before it becomes law.

Bill HB 2502 (sponsored by Rep. Dan Houx) will allow for 39 separate sportsbooks skins distributed amongst the state’s 13 casinos and six professional sports organizations. The bill will officially set the sports betting tax rate at 8%, which will be one of the lowest in the country.

When the bill was first introduced, it included a 10% tax rate. This was lowered through an approved amendment as the bill made its way to the House floor. House fiscal analysts believe legalized sports betting could result in around $10 million in annual tax revenue for the state.

39 Potential Online Sports Betting Operators

The bill will allow each casino to offer a maximum of three skins, but will cap the number of skins per casino company at six if they own two or more facilities. The remaining skins will be allocated to Missouri professional sports franchises.

The breakdown for skins will be as such:

• Affinity Gaming: Six skins
• Boyd Gaming: Six skins
• Caesars Entertainment: Six skins
• Century Casinos: Six skins
• Penn National Gaming: Six skins
• Bally’s Corp.: Three skins
• Missouri professional sports franchises (6): One skin each

An online sports betting license will require an initial application fee of $150,000, and then a renewal fee of $125,000 one year after. A retail sports betting license will require an initial application fee of $100,000.