In Missouri, the Senate has traditionally been where sports betting goes to die. For the third consecutive year, a bill to legalize wagering has reached the Senate floor. The question is whether or not the climate in a general assembly that has struggled mightily to find a consensus has finally changed.
In 2022, a standalone sports betting bill was killed by filibuster on the Senate floor, and in 2021, Sen. Denny Hoskins’ sports betting and a video lottery terminal (VLT) bill never got a vote. Hoskins, who has long attempted to tie legal wagering to legal VLTs, was the architect of last session’s filibuster. This time around, Hoskins’ sports betting and VLT bill didn’t get out of committee, while a package of standalone wagering bills that essentially mirror 2022 versions did. HB 556 and'HB 581, which got more votes in the House in 2023 than in 2022, are now poised for their moment in the Senate.
Stakeholders say they expect legal wagering legislation, which got its first reading in the Senate on March 22, to come up for discussion in the chamber as early as Tuesday. Sources say there are enough votes to get sports betting through the Senate, where Sen. Tony Luetkemeyer has been championing the cause for several years.
But whether it even gets put to a vote is another question entirely.