Professional Sports Leagues Lobby Missouri Lawmakers For Integrity FeeSports Betting Legislation Stalled In The "Show-Me State" In Both 2018 And 2019 |
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Representatives from the MLB, NBA and PGA Tour spoke with Missouri lawmakers last week to help influence the language of any bill that would legalize sports betting in the state.
Missouri lawmakers are expected to reconsider legalizing sports betting in the 2020 legislative session after a couple years of stalled legislation. The state first talked about legalizing the activity in 2018 and in 2019, Republican lawmakers from both the Senate and House sponsored a sports betting bill, but neither even reached a vote.
According to local media, the leagues showed up to a hearing Thursday and lobbied for a cut of the revenue. The leagues want any legislation to include a provision that would send a small percentage of total revenue to the league in exchange for the use of official league data, known as an integrity fee.
Leagues have tried to implement this fee in nearly every state that has legalized sports betting, but have yet to get a single government to enact it.
Lobbyists from the leagues argued that without mandating official data usage, sportsbooks would become unreliable. With the fee threatening the profitability of operators, casinos and other sportsbook operators have pushed back against this idea.
“You can’t have sports betting without our sports, but you can certainly have sports betting without a casino,” said Jeremy Kudon, an attorney representing the leagues, at the hearing.
Representatives from players associations were also in attendance to push for new laws surrounding player privacy. Player unions worry that if athletes’ private information hits the web, they could face retaliation from fans who have lost bets.
While Missouri doesn’t have legal sports betting, casino gaming is legal in the state on its 13 riverboat casinos. In 2018, those 13 casinos generated $1.75 billion in revenue. The government received $446.5 million in tax revenue from gambling operators.
Early estimates have the government adding $289 million in annual tax revenue from sports betting.
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