93.9 The Eagle – The News and Talk of Columbia, MO
Missouri’s Senate President Pro Tem says the Legislature is unlikely to approve sports wagering this session.
The House voted 118-35 in March to approve sports wagering, but a frustrated Pro Tem Caleb Rowden of Columbia says there are roadblocks in the Senate.
“I think the (Missouri) House is going to take another run at trying to find a different mechanism for it. Potentially we still have the same general set of problems in the Senate, which is really just one person. But obviously that person is still there,” Rowden says.
The Associated Press has reported that 33 states and the District of Columbia now offer some form of sports wagering. The House bill from veteran State Rep. Dan Houx (R-Warrensburg) taxes sports betting at ten percent and those revenues would fund public education. There are legislative opponents to sports wagering, including State Rep. Cheri Toalson Reisch (R-Hallsville). She warns about compulsive gambling.
During a live interview on 939 the Eagle’s “Wake Up Mid-Missouri”, Pro Tem Rowden did not sounds optimistic about Senate passage.
“I would say it’s unlikely, not impossible. Nothing is dead until next Friday (May 12) at 6 o’clock. But I think we’re going to have to figure out a different way to get this thing done. It’s frustrating,” says Rowden.
Missouri’s 2023 legislative session ends on Friday May 12 at 6 pm, under the state Constitution.
Representative Houx, the House sponsor, tells 939 the Eagle that Chiefs fans are traveling to Kansas to place bets on NFL games. He says that during the January Chiefs-Bengals playoff game at Arrowhead, about 4,500 attempted bets were made inside Arrowhead and in the parking lot. Representative Houx says that same day in Kansas, there were more than 1.1 million bets made. He says the majority of them were around the Missouri-Kansas state line.
