Sports wagering, minimum wage hike headed for November vote in Missouri

Bill DeWitt III, president of the St. Louis Cardinals, foreground, testifies in favor of sports wagering alongside Todd George, executive vice president of Penn National Gaming, center, and Jeremy Kudon, president of the Sports Betting Alliance, during a legislative hearing in February 2024.

Rudi Keller ~ Missouri Independent

An end run around the Missouri General Assembly has the nation’s two largest sports books driving hard to their goal of crossing home plate with a big payday.

A constitutional amendment to legalize sports wagering will be Amendment 2 on the Nov. 5 ballot, Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft’s office said Tuesday, after finding that backers had enough signatures in six congressional districts to qualify.

And a proposal for a higher minimum wage will be on the ballot as Proposition A. It is the third time a measure to increase the minimum wage has been before voters. It has been successful both times previously and this time it is paired with a requirement that all employers provide paid time off to their workers at the rate of one hour for every 30 hours worked.

A third initiative, to allow a new casino to be licensed on the Osage River near the Lake of the Ozarks, did not make the ballot. The casino, intended to compete directly with a planned Osage Nation casino, was 2,031 valid signatures short in the 2nd Congressional District.

Organizers of the initiative under the name Osage River Gaming and Convention issued a statement that they are considering their next move.

“We are confident that after all the signatures are counted and verified we will appear on the November 2024 ballot,” spokesman Ed Rhode said in the statement.

Each initiative needed to hit a minimum number of signatures in six of Missouri’s eight congressional districts to make the ballot. There were 11,732 signatures that were deemed invalid in the submissions for the 2nd District.

A constitutional amendment intended to protect reproductive rights, including the right to an abortion, was also certified. Barring a reversal on the Osage casino, there will be four proposed constitutional amendments on the ballot and one statutory change, the minimum wage petition. Each measure placed on the ballot will require a majority of votes to pass.

The sports wagering initiative was launched late last year after major sports teams and casino companies were frustrated again in passing legislation. The public-facing part of the campaign has been taken by the major pro sports teams, but the money – $6.3 million for the signature campaign – has been provided by the two largest online sports wagering platforms, FanDuel and DraftKings.

“Missouri is now just one step away from joining most other states in legalizing sports betting and being able to provide millions of dollars to Missouri classrooms,” Bill DeWitt III, president of the St. Louis Cardinals, said in a statement issued by the Winning for Missouri Education campaign. “On behalf of all six of Missouri’s professional sports teams, I would like to thank everyone who signed a petition to get this on the ballot.”

Each of those six teams would be able to offer fans a branded wagering platform and receive exclusive advertising rights in and near their stadiums. The online wagering platforms could be licensed to operate independent of the teams and casinos, which would also receive the ability to apply for a license.

The money won by the gaming industry would be taxed at 10% of the net after promotions and other costs. In Kansas, which legalized sports wagering in 2022, a similar taxing structure brought in $9.8 million for $172 million wagered during June.

The ballot language anticipates Missouri revenue would be up to $28.9 million annually that would be spent on education programs.

Sports wagering has been legalized in 38 states and the District of Columbia since the 2018 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that struck down federal laws banning sports betting nationally. Large numbers of fans have crossed into Illinois and Kansas to place wagers.

“By keeping sports betting dollars in-state, we can invest in our students and communities and ensure a brighter future for Missouri,” campaign spokesman Jack Cardetti said.

The minimum wage and paid leave proposal builds on successful efforts in 2006 and 2018 to boost the pay of Missouri’s lowest wage workers.

The 2006 change set the wage at $6.50 an hour at a time when the federal minimum wage was $5.15 an hour. It also included indexing for inflation, which had increased the minimum to $7.80 an hour by 2018.

That year, voters approved a measure boosting the minimum wage to $8.60, with built-in boosts to $12 an hour by the start of 2023. The current rate, $12.30 an hour, is because of a cost-of-living adjustment applied Jan. 1.

If approved, the minimum wage would go to $13.75 an hour on Jan. 1 and go up again to $15 an hour on Jan. 1, 2026. After that, it would again be indexed for inflation.

The current federal minimum wage is $7.25 an hour and it has not been increased since 2009.

In a statement after the certification, backers said the proposal will make families more secure financially and healthier because workers will be able to stay home if they are sick or a loved one needs care.

“Allowing workers to earn paid sick days and increasing the minimum wage is a huge step in the right direction,” Lora Gulley, director of community mobilization and advocacy at Generate Health in St Louis, said in the statement.

It cost backers $855,000 to put Proposition A on the ballot and the campaign fund had $1 million on hand on June 30. More than $1 million of the money raised has been donated by the Sixteen Thirty Fund, a Washington D.C.-based liberal dark money organization.