Missouri Sports Betting, Ozarks Casino Referendums Bring Record Spending

Posted on: October 14, 2024, 11:33h. 

Last updated on: October 14, 2024, 11:53h.

Devin O'Connor @CasinoorgDevinO Read More
Expertise: Asia Pacific Gaming, Commercial Gaming, Legislation, Politics.

In the home stretch of the leadup to the 2024 election, Missouri voters are being bombarded by gaming campaign ads.

Missouri sports betting Ozarks casino
Most of Missouri’s neighbors are benefiting from legal sports betting. One of Missouri’s largest casino operators is working to keep sports gambling on the sidelines during the 2024 election. (Image: Springfield Business Journal)

Along with picking the next president, Missourians on November 5 will be asked if they support authorizing retail and online sportsbooks. They’ll also be questioned about expanding casino gambling from the Missouri and Mississippi rivers to the Osage.

The gaming referendums are both citizen-led. The ballot questions, which would amend the Missouri Constitution, require only simple majority support to pass. The sports betting contest has propelled record spending for a Missouri referendum.

According to campaign finance records, Amendment 2 has spurred $46 million in political funds. The previous record high for spending on a referendum in the Show-Me State came in 2006 when $31 million was raised to pass a question that protected stem cell research.

Sportsbook Spending, Caesars Conundrum 

The pro-sports wagering lobby has been bankrolled by sportsbook leaders DraftKings and FanDuel. The two sportsbook firms contributed about $32 million to Winning for Missouri Education, the political committee behind the sports betting ads that tout the educational benefits of allowing casinos and professional sports stadiums to operate retail and mobile sports betting operations.

Caesars Entertainment is funding the opposition campaign.

Caesars, one of the state’s six commercial casino operators, believes Amendment 2 would authorize too many sportsbook licenses. The Harrah’s North Kansas City, Horseshoe St. Louis, and Isle of Capri Boonville operator believes the current casinos should receive a bigger piece of the sports betting pie.

Caesars has spent $14 million in trying to defeat Amendment 2. That brings total lobbying on the sports betting question to $46 million. Caesars employs about 2,000 people in Missouri.

Bally’s, meanwhile, and the casino company’s Missouri-based development partner on the proposed resort at the Lake of the Ozarks, has spent $9.4 million in trying to convince voters to back Amendment 5. Bally’s and real estate developer RIS Inc. have split the $9.4 million campaign costs.

If Amendment 5 passes, Bally’s and RIS would be allowed to pursue a casino license for a resort near the Hollywood-style Lake of the Ozarks sign at the junction of Highway 54 and Route 242.

Bally’s and RIS are also incorporating education benefits in their attempt to secure public support. Amendment 5 would require that all state revenue derived from the Ozarks casino be appropriated to early childhood literacy programs in public elementary schools.

There is no organized opposition to Amendment 5. Bally’s says its lobbying spending is to make the referendum clear to voters and highlight the early childhood education benefits the resort would deliver.

2024 Election

The odds are good that Missouri will go red for the seventh consecutive US presidential election. A Democratic presidential candidate hasn’t won Missouri since 1996 when the state went for Bill Clinton.

On Polymarket, an online betting exchange taking bets on the presidential election, bettors give Donald Trump a 99% chance of winning Missouri and the state’s 10 electoral votes. Though Missouri is a Midwestern state, the state has a heavy Southern cultural influence and is almost entirely located within the conservative Bible Belt.