Missouri sports betting stays on November ballot after state court judgment

Sports betting in Missouri is set to remain on the November ballot after Cole County Circuit Judge Daniel R. Green’s decision gave a major boost to hopes for the vertical in the Show-Me State.

On Friday, September 6, Green ruled in favor of Secretary of State John Ashcroft and dismissed a lawsuit challenging the process used to certify the sports wagering petition.

The judgment came following a hearing on Thursday during which Marc Ellinger – the chair of the Republican National Lawyers Association – and a team of attorneys supporting plaintiffs Jaqueline Wood and Blake Lawrence argued several hundred signatures in support of the petition were invalid.

The thrust of Ellinger’s argument focused on the 1^st Congressional District and highlighted the fact that without sufficient signatures in that district, the petition would have only met the criteria in five of the eight Congressional Districts required.

Multiple witnesses were called throughout the day to demonstrate how the signatures could be invalid, but on Friday, Green deemed the plaintiff’s evidence to be insufficient.

“The court has determined the Secretary’s method of determining the number of signatures needed in each Congressional District was valid and lawful,” Green wrote in his judgment. “The Secretary certified the Sports Wagering Petition gathered more signatures than the minimum needed in Congressional District 1.”

Furthermore, Green added that “lawsuits seeking to remove an initiative petition from the ballot after it has been certified as sufficient by the Secretary are highly disfavored,” and that there was neither sufficient “justification nor evidence” to call the Secretary’s certification into question.

Winning For Missouri led the signature-gathering process this year and turned in 370,000 signatures in May, smashing the 170,000 target – including 8% of voters in six of the eight districts – that it needed to add the petition to the ballot.

Following Green’s ruling on Friday, WME spokesperson Jack Cardetti said the verdict was a “big victory for Missourians” and that a vote for Amendment 2 in November would provide tens of millions of dollars in permanent, dedicated funding each year to state public schools.

Should the ballot prove successful when Missourians weigh in on the issue, both online and in-person sportsbooks would be legalized.

A legal sports betting market would include a 10% tax rate and be regulated by the Missouri Gaming Commission.