At his home in suburban St. Louis, Brett Koenig can pull out his smartphone and open a sports app, but he can’t bet. He is blocked by a pop-up message stating that he is not in a legal location.
Missouri is one of 12 states where sports remain illegal more than five years after the U. S. Supreme Court allowed states to approve it.
“It just seems silly that everyone else can do it and we can’t,” said Koenig, who has launched a social media campaign called “Let MO Play” to rally support for legal sports betting in his home state.
Other states have reaped a total of over $4 billion of taxes from more than $280 billion wagered on sports since 2018. Vermont will become the latest to accept sports bets, starting Jan. 11, But the odds for expansion to additional states appear iffy in 2024 because of political resistance and the sometimes competing financial interests of existing gambling operators.
“The few states that haven’t legalized yet are the last for one reason: They all have obstacles,” said Becca Giden, policy director at Eilers.
After a “whirlwind” of expansion, the playing field for further sports betting has narrowed to a group of states where various stakeholders all “want to kind of maximize what they get out of the legalization framework,” said Chris Cylke, senior vice president of government relations at the American Gaming Association, which represents the industry. “So that can create some friction.”
The states where sports remain illegal are Alabama, Alaska, California, Georgia, Hawaii, Idaho, Minnesota, Missouri, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Texas, and Utah.
California and Texas, the two most populous states in the country, would be the biggest payouts for sports bettors, but neither is more likely to adopt it in 2024.
Last year, California’s electorate overwhelmingly defeated two rival sports projects after a record $463 million raised from both supporters and conflicting parties. U. S. tribes opposing a new sports initiative aimed at getting signatures to be on the 2024 ballot.
The proposed sale of the Dallas Mavericks basketball team to a politically active family that runs the Las Vegas Sands casino company has sparked speculation about a further push for legal sports betting in Texas. But the state legislature won’t hold normal consultations in 2024, and Texas has no way to put citizens’ bills to a vote.
Neighboring Oklahoma already has many tribe-run casinos. Republican Gov. Kevin Stitt announced a plan in November to allow in-person sports betting at tribal casinos and online sports betting through state-licensed platforms. But his plan doesn’t seem to have the effect of the tribes Stitt is in conflict with.
Minnesota could be the second state likely to allow sports betting, but that would likely require a bipartisan vote in the Senate, where Democrats have a slight merit of one seat over Republicans. Last year, lawmakers fought over differences between tribes. casinos, which need exclusive rights for online and land-based sports betting, and racetracks, which also need a larger percentage of the gambling market. But they’ll check again.
“From a tribal perspective, the time is right and they would like to see it done this year,” said Sen. Matt Klein, D-Md. , who is sponsoring the sports legislation.
Efforts to legalize sports betting in Missouri have been continually blocked in the state Senate, where Republican Sen. Denny Hoskins insists they will have to be accompanied by regulation of legally dubious slot-type video games that have popped up at retail stores and truck stops. . Casinos oppose this.
Online sports wagering companies, casinos, professional sports teams and video gaming terminal interests have combined to hire about 80 lobbyists in Missouri.
The St. Louis Cardinals are also leading a coalition of professional sports groups in the state proposing a petition to put sports betting on the November ballot. But Senate President Pro Tem Caleb Rowden doubts the clients of the initiative petition and legislation, lamenting that Missouri may simply “lose probably a significant amount of economic activity. “
The data suggests that Missourians are interested in sports betting. From mid-June to mid-December, startup GeoComply Solutions processed more than 13. 5 million location checks from 280,000 devices in Missouri attempting to access mobile sports betting sites. About 48% were looking to use sports betting in Kansas and 40% in Illinois. They were not allowed to do so.
When Koenig needs to bet on sports, he drives forty-five minutes from his home in Missouri to Illinois. He’s alone.
GeoComply processed 42,000 location checks from 1,900 online sports betting accounts that traveled from Missouri to the Illinois border city in the past six months. When the Kansas City Chiefs hosted the Buffalo Bills on Dec. 10, GeoComply counted 786 location checks from 570 traveling sports betting accounts. from Missouri they border the city to Kansas.
“It’s very easy for other people to cross the border, place their bets and then go home and watch the game,” said GeoComply spokesman John Pappas. “We see this thousands of times a day, a week, in any state where it is not legal. “
In Georgia, Republican Gov. Brian Kemp has expressed an openness to legalizing sports betting. But the effort stalled this past year when the Senate rejected a proposed constitutional amendment that would have let voters decide the issue. The debate is complex because proponents of casinos and horse racing want to leverage sports wagering to also legalize those forms of gambling.
While it still remains a matter of chance, Georgia may be the most realistic candidate to allow sports in 2024, Giden said. She expects a well-funded lobbying effort from online operators and sports teams.
To legally bet on sports in Alabama, a voter-approved constitutional amendment would also be required. Within the legislature, proposals on sports have largely been tied to broader efforts to expand gambling beyond existing tribal casinos, dog racetracks and charitable bingo operators. None have succeeded yet.
Republican state Sen. Greg Albritton said some lawmakers are working on new gambling legislation that would include casinos, a lottery and sports betting.
“Whatever happens, if I get what I want, this factor will be discussed this year,” he said.
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Associated Press writer Kim Chandler contributed from Montgomery, Alabama.