Missouri voters will get to decide the future of sports betting this November, and one of the companies driving the issue made a significant political contribution to help make that happen.

DraftKings has sent a Missouri PAC a $3.5 million check to help fund the drive to legalize sports betting in the state.

Meanwhile, Nebraska put in a last-ditch effort to legalize online sports betting. It was anticipated to be addressed during a special session of the Nebraska Legislature.

Unfortunately, the special session adjourned without addressing the matter, officially killing the bill.

DraftKings Donates $3.5 Million to PAC for Legalizing Sports Betting

Last week, the Missouri Secretary of State’s office announced that sports betting will appear as a referendum on this November’s election ballot. The state’s professional sports teams are joining forces with DraftKings and FanDuel in the push to legalize retail and online sports betting. 

Now that we are officially on the ballot, we’ll be over the next two and a half months talking to Missourians across the state about why it makes sense to set up a legal sports betting framework that helps public education.

Jack Cardetti, Winnings for Missouri Education spokesman

Two days following the announcement of the ballot referendum, DraftKings made a $3.5 million donation to the Winnings for Missouri Education PAC. The donation was revealed via a filing with the Missouri Ethics Commission. Including the most recent donation, the PAC has raised over $10 million. 

Following the donation, campaign spokesman Jack Cardetti explained that the PAC will spend the next few months “talking to Missourians across the state about why it makes sense to set up a legal sports betting framework that helps public education.”

If the measure passes, it would add a constitutional amendment permitting sports betting and lay the framework for retail and online sports betting. Sports betting revenue would be taxed at 10%, and most of those taxes would fund public education programs throughout the state.

It is common for PACs or other activist groups to be formed by groups looking to legalize online gambling. It is also common for major online gambling companies to make sizable contributions towards these efforts. 

Contributions by major companies are not a guarantee of success. PokerStars made significant contributions in the past in California, looking to include online poker regulation. Unfortunately, those efforts failed. 

It is unclear at the moment where Missourians land on the issue, so DraftKings is doing what it can to turn its investment into a successful vote in November.

Online Sports Betting Bill Dead in Nebraska

We recently reported that Nebraska is looking to legalize online sports betting to help relieve property taxes. When reporting, we knew that the odds were long, and on Tuesday, those odds went bust.

The special session of the Nebraska Legislature concluded on Tuesday, and sports betting was not discussed or voted on. This means the issue is dead for 2024.

Senator Eliot Bostar introduced a pair of bills at the beginning of the special session. While the matter was able to advance out of the General Affairs Committee last week, that’s as far as the bill moved.

On Friday, 13 Nebraska senators spoke out on the measure, calling it a “poison pill.” This so-called poison pill had the potential to bring up to $32 million in tax revenue annually and would have helped to ease property taxes in the state.

Nebraska was the last state in the U.S. considering sports betting legislation. The measure’s failure means that 2024 is the first year since 2018 that at least one state legalized sports betting. That year, the Supreme Court struck down the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act (PASPA). Since then, 38 states and the District of Columbia have legalized at least one form of sports betting.

Sources:

https://www.sportsbettingdime.com/news/betting/nebraska-online-sports-betting-bill-officially-dead/
https://igamingbusiness.com/sports-betting/nebraska-legilature-adjourns-sports-betting/
https://www.casino.org/news/draftkings-signs-3-5m-check-to-back-missouri-sports-betting-pac/
https://www.vegasslotsonline.com/news/2024/08/19/draftkings-provides-another-3-5m-in-funding-to-push-for-missouri-sports-betting/

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