Missouri has decided to put a pause to legalizing sports betting, leaving potential gamblers in the state scrambling for answers as to when sports betting will finally arrive in Missouri.
Sports betting is rapidly growing in popularity, reporting $13.71 billion in revenue in 2024 after it was legalized in more states across the United States. The American Gaming Association shared that $150 billion in bets were placed on legal sportsbooks around the country. As more states continue to see an increase in revenue off the back of legalizing sports betting, states like Missouri have started discussing what it would look like for them.
Missouri and Mississippi have both been talking sports betting legalization in 2025, but now now efforts in the former state have been slowed.
Legal sports betting is still coming to the state of Missouri by beginning of December 2025, though there’s no guarantee that it must arrive any earlier than that. In early November 2024, Missouri voters approved legal sports betting for the state, but not by a wide margin. Amendment 2, which stated that it would “allow the Missouri Gaming Commission to regulate licensed sports wagering including online sports betting, gambling boats, professional sports betting districts, and mobile licenses to sports betting operators,” only won by 0.3% of the total number of votes cast. But a win is still a win, right?
While it has passed, it may not be implemented as quickly as was expected or as some had hoped. The Missouri Gaming Commission has confirmed that the Missouri Secretary of State’s office rejected “emergency licensing rules.” This means that the timeline for legal sports betting in Missouri has been pushed back. According to the Missouri Gaming Commission, the delay will be for a few months.
As of now, the Commission will proceed with the licensing rules and make them go into effect on August 30, 2025. Meanwhile, Commission staff are going to be working toward a “required start date” of December 1, 2025. That is when wagering money on sports must become legal through official channels in the state of Missouri.
This means that the goal is to get sports betting legalized and Amendment 2 implemented by the summer, but there is a strict deadline set up towards the end of the year if it should prove to be needed to get these efforts over the line. In an attempt to maintain the intended summer date, the Missouri Gaming Commission has hired more people with expertise specific to sports betting.
This is clearly something that citizens of the state want, explaining why the emergency rules were proposed to start legalizing efforts sooner than is strictly required. According to data from GeoComply, there were 11 million attempts to place sports bets in Missouri during the first half of the 2024 football season alone. That’s a lot of potential revenue for the state that hasn’t yet been capitalized on.
Players must be 21 years of age or older or reach the minimum age for gambling in their respective state and located in jurisdictions where online gambling is legal. Please play responsibly. Bet with your head, not over it. If you or someone you know has a gambling problem, and wants help, call or visit: (a) the Council on Compulsive Gambling of New Jersey at 1-800-Gambler or www.800gambler.org; or (b) Gamblers Anonymous at 855-2-CALL-GA or www.gamblersanonymous.org.
