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Online gambling is coming to Missouri, but not until the last possible moment allowed by law. When voters approved sports betting in a referendum last year, the constitutional amendment stipulated a launch deadline of December 1, 2025. Hopes of an earlier launch haven’t and the Missouri Gaming Commission has now confirmed that Dec. 1 will be the launch date, as first reported by Covers.
According to Legal Sports Report, hopes of a launch this summer were thwarted by Secretary of State Denny Hoskins, who rejected the emergency rules necessary for that to happen.
Waiting is nothing new for would-be Missouri sports bettors, however. The state’s road to get here has been long enough that another six months may not make much difference, beyond missing the beginning of the NFL season.
State neighbors Illinois and Indiana were among the early success stories for legal US sports betting. Even with those positive examples nearby, the Missouri legislature found itself bogged down in disputes between competing interests over the specifics.
Even Caesars, ordinarily in favor of online gambling expansion, became an adversary during the 2024 effort because it objected to the inclusion of untethered licenses. Caesars owns four retail properties in the state.
Another issue was interference from parties that wanted to tie-bar video lottery terminals to the sports betting legislation. That language had to be removed before the bill could muster the to . Now, efforts to legalize VLTs separately are underway.
Could online casinos be next for Missouri?
The natural question for Missouri gamblers to be asking now is whether online sportsbooks will lead to online casinos. That’s not out of the question, but unfortunately, precedent in other states suggests an even longer and more treacherous road to get there.
After hit a brick wall. The only exception is Rhode Island, but its monopoly gambling market kept the debate simple.
Given how difficult it was for Missouri to sports betting, an immediate online casino push would almost certainly fail. The state’s retail casinos would be more afraid of iGaming’s impact on their core business than they are of sports betting. Even the voting public might not be on board, given that the sports betting referendum ed by the narrowest of margins.
The important question in the meantime is whether the VLT effort succeeds of not. One of the reasons Illinois online casino proponents have hit a brick wall is the powerful political influence of the small business owners who have come to rely on revenue from VLTs (or VGTs as they are known in that state).
If VLT legislation es, that may kill any hope of online casinos for quite some time. The VLT owners and manufacturers would immediately become iGaming opponents, while retail casinos, facing one new competing product, would be even less likely to endorse another.
