St. Louis City democrats oppose amendment to legalize sports betting in Missouri

The St. Louis City Democratic Central Committee announced Tuesday its support for all city and statewide ballot questions facing Missouri voters this November, with one exception: Amendment 2, which would legalize sports betting in the state.

Committee Chair Sean Fauss cited concerns over projected tax revenue, explaining that the amendment's language allows operators to deduct expenses from sports gambling revenues, which could result in annual tax revenue projections as low as $0 or as high as $28.9 million.

This uncertainty, he said, makes it difficult to see how the measure will benefit Missouri’s public finances. In contrast, Amendment 5, which would add a new casino at the Lake of The Ozarks, would bring jobs with it, Fauss added.

“When we look at Amendment 5, we have an opposition situation taking place. We have money that’s constitutionally allocated to early childhood literacy. This will also include construction jobs, over 500 of them down at the Lake of the Ozarks, as well as jobs to operate the casino going forward,” Fauss said.

Amendment 2, if approved, would require license holders, including the St. Louis Cardinals, Blues, and City SC, to pay $15.25 million in licensing fees and contribute a 10% tax on gambling revenue to Missouri’s public education system.

However, the Democratic candidate for Attorney General, Elad Gross, echoed Fauss’s concerns, arguing that the measure does not allocate sufficient funds for problem gambling resources.

The proposed sports betting amendment has the support of Winning for Missouri Education, a coalition of Missouri’s major professional sports teams. A spokesperson from the coalition pointed to endorsements from two building trade organizations in Kansas City and St. Louis, emphasizing the potential benefits of tax revenue dedicated to public education.

The coalition also highlighted recent data showing that from September 5 to October 21, approximately 216,000 Missouri-based mobile sports betting accounts attempted to place 11.1 million wagers in Kansas and Illinois—states where sports betting is already legal.

These wagers were blocked due to Missouri’s current ban on sports gambling. This data, the coalition suggested, notes a demand for legalized sports betting within the state.