Hedge your bets: Missouri sports betting won’t begin until summer 2025 – Springfield Daily Citizen

Are you looking forward to legalized sports betting in Missouri? Don’t be too quick to bet on this season’s Kansas City Chiefs games — or even the Super Bowl next February.

Although Missourians this week approved a constitutional amendment to allow sports betting, the first legal bets will be placed in Missouri by the summer of 2025.

“I would hate to make anyone expect that they will be able to bet on sports here in Missouri in the next month or two,” said Jack Cardetti, a spokesman for Winning for Missouri Education, the committee that promoted Amendment 2.

The sports betting industry will be regulated by the Missouri Gaming Commission (MGC), which expects the first legal fees to be placed in the state by mid-summer 2025, said chairman Jan Zimmerman. There is a lot of regulatory work to be done before the first bet is placed.

“The language of the bill says we have to be operational by Dec. 1, 2025, but we’re hoping to get there sooner than that,” Zimmerman said in a Nov. 7 phone interview.

“Hopefully, in order to complete all of these administrative processes, we’re looking at mid-summer (2025) to have all of those things in place.”

In one of the tightest races of election night, Missourians narrowly voted to amend the state constitution to allow sports betting. With a margin of less than 7,500 votes, approximately 50.1% of Missouri voters approved Amendment 2, while 49.9% voted no. Missouri joins 38 states in the U.S. and Washington DC to allow sports betting, according to the American Sports Association.

Missouri is using other states as a model to build a game control plan

As Missouri becomes the 39th state to legalize sports betting, the MGC will build its regulatory framework on existing systems in other states, Zimmerman said.

“Good… “That gives us a chance to pick and choose and talk to people about what’s working well and what’s not working well.”

MGC staff “have been contacting their counterparts at gaming commissions across the United States to discuss those rules and regulations (and) to discuss the application process.”

MGC has begun developing that regulatory framework, which will eventually have to be approved by the governor’s office, Zimmerman said. The regulations will specify the procedure for applying for a sports betting license.

The commission expects applications for the gambling site to open sometime in 2025, Zimmerman said. Those requests will take months to be approved, including a background investigation by the Missouri State Highway Patrol’s sports division.

“We’re talking about a couple of months between applying (and) receiving an application,” Zimmerman said.

The commission has been looking at sports betting for years

The committee that recommended Amendment 2, Winning for Missouri Education, has full faith in MGC as an authority, said attorney Jack Cardetti.

“The sports commission is an experienced administrator with a lot of experience,” Cardetti said. “The constitution gives the Missouri Gaming Commission the power to regulate, so the expectation is that they will begin to set more specific rules” on sports betting.

Winning Missouri Education hopes to have sports betting in place before the December 2025 deadline, Cardetti said.

“This measure sets a time limit… but it is our hope and expectation that they will be able to implement that sooner than the deadline,” Cardetti said.

The attorney doesn’t want to give Missourians false hope that gambling will happen this year. In neighboring Kansas, which passed legislation legalizing gambling in 2022, it took four months for the program to be implemented after the governor signed the bill.

Because sports betting is enshrined in the Missouri Constitution through the appeals process rather than through the legislative process, regulators don’t have much leeway when it comes to interpretation, Zimmerman said.

“This was unique in that it wasn’t a law, it was a petition,” Zimmerman said. “Because of what it is, we can’t change the language, we can’t add something, we can’t take anything away.”

“This drives what the rules and regulations will look like because we have to follow the correct language.”

The commission is looking into the sports betting industry and how to better regulate it in Missouri ahead of the Nov. 5, Zimmerman said. Another type of bill that would allow sports betting has been put before Missouri lawmakers for years, giving the commission enough time to prepare.

MGC “worked long and hard on the possibility of sports betting, you know, long before the election on Tuesday.”

Money from Amendment 2 goes to Missouri education

The commission has 82 full-time employees who oversee everything from bingo to casinos to recreational sports, Zimmerman said. About six employees are focused solely on implementing sports betting. More positions will be hired when demand is established and there is a clear picture of income.

“We don’t know what the revenue is going to look like on this,” Zimmerman said. “No, we’re not adding anyone at this time.”

Sports betting reforms have become the most expensive election campaign in the country’s history. Defeat the Missouri Education, the committee promoting Amendment 2, reported Oct. 28 has raised $40.75 million since launching its first campaign in January, according to Missouri Ethics Commission data.

Winning Missouri Education is sponsored by online sports betting apps, with costs split equally by DK Crown Holdings, owner of DraftKings, and BetFair Interactive, owner of FanDuel.

Seven of Missouri’s eight neighboring states, including Kansas and Illinois, which passed legislation in 2019 to allow sports betting, already allow gambling.

The new law “should generate tens of millions of dollars that stay here in Missouri instead of pushing Missourians to seven neighboring states that already have gambling,” the said Cardetti.

The group behind the appeal has data showing that Missourians attempted to bet 11.1 million times in the first seven weeks of the NFL season.

“That kind of gives you a sense of how much interest there is,” Cardetti said.

MGC Chair Zimmerman said the amendment was passed with the goal of providing funding for education and the commission is keeping that close to heart as it lays the groundwork for implementation.

“It’s my hope that if that was the goal, to provide funding for education, it will do that,” Zimmerman said.

“Not to sound stupid, it’s my hope that, you know, sports betting will give more money to education.”