Current:Home > ContactCampaign to legalize sports betting in Missouri gets help from mascots to haul voter signatures -×
Campaign to legalize sports betting in Missouri gets help from mascots to haul voter signatures
View
Date:2025-04-18 06:12:01
JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — Missouri’s professional sports teams on Thursday turned in more than 340,000 voter signatures to put a ballot proposal to legalize sports betting before voters this November.
The campaign had help from Cardinals’ mascot Fredbird, Royals’ Sluggerrr and St. Louis Blues’ mascot Louie. The oversized bird, lion and blue bear waved enthusiastically as they hauled boxes filled with voter signatures to the Missouri Secretary of State’s Office in Jefferson City.
Republican Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft now must validate the voter signatures before the proposal officially makes it on the ballot. The campaign needs roughly 180,000 signatures to qualify.
A total of 38 states and the District of Columbia now allow some form sports betting, including 30 states and the nation’s capital that allow online wagering.
The Missouri initiative is an attempt to sidestep the Senate, where bills to allow sports betting have repeatedly stalled. Missouri is one of just a dozen states where sports wagering remains illegal more than five years after the U.S. Supreme Court cleared the way for states to adopt it.
Teams in the coalition include the St. Louis Cardinals, St. Louis Blues, Kansas City Chiefs, the Kansas City Royals, and the Kansas City Current and St. Louis City soccer teams.
The proposed constitutional amendment would allow each of Missouri’s 13 casinos and six professional sports teams to offer onsite and mobile sports betting. Teams would control onsite betting and advertising within 400 yards (366 meters) of their stadiums and arenas. The initiative also would allow two mobile sports betting operators to be licensed directly by the Missouri Gaming Commission.
Under the initiative, at least $5 million annually in licensing fees and taxes would go toward problem gambling programs, with remaining tax revenues going toward elementary, secondary and higher education. If approved by voters, state regulators would have to launch sports betting no later than Dec. 1, 2025.
veryGood! (3391)
Related
- Krispy Kreme offers a free dozen Grinch green doughnuts: When to get the deal
- Slumping New Jersey Devils fire coach Lindy Ruff, promote Travis Green
- Of the Subway bread choices, which is the healthiest? Ranking the different types
- Iditarod champion Dallas Seavey kills moose in self-defense after incident with dog team
- Man can't find second winning lottery ticket, sues over $394 million jackpot, lawsuit says
- EAGLEEYE COIN: Application of Blockchain Technology in Supply Chain Management
- Alabama man jailed in 'the freezer' died of homicide due to hypothermia, records show
- New lawsuit blames Texas' Smokehouse Creek fire on power company
- Macy's says employee who allegedly hid $150 million in expenses had no major 'impact'
- Vegans swear by nutritional yeast. What is it?
Ranking
- Nearly half of US teens are online ‘constantly,’ Pew report finds
- JetBlue and Spirit abandon their decision to merge after it was blocked by a judge
- Ted Lasso's Brendan Hunt and Fiancée Shannon Nelson Welcome Baby No. 2
- Teen Mom's Jenelle Evans and Husband David Eason Break Up After 6 Years of Marriage
- A White House order claims to end 'censorship.' What does that mean?
- Bitcoin bounces to an all-time high less than two years after FTX scandal clobbered crypto
- Book excerpt: Hits, Flops, and Other Illusions by Ed Zwick
- The Daily Money: File your taxes for free
Recommendation
Off the Grid: Sally breaks down USA TODAY's daily crossword puzzle, Triathlon
Some urban lit authors see fiction in the Oscar-nominated ‘American Fiction’
West Virginia bus driver charged with DUI after crash sends multiple children to the hospital
For Women’s History Month, a look at some trailblazers in American horticulture
In ‘Nickel Boys,’ striving for a new way to see
'$6.6 billion deal': Arkhouse and Brigade increase buyout bid for Macy's
Of the Subway bread choices, which is the healthiest? Ranking the different types
Arkansas voters could make history with 2 Supreme Court races, including crowded chief justice race