As our best sports betting sites eagerly wait to launch in a state that recently approved legal sports betting, we’re finding out more about what that betting market will look like.

When legal sports betting launches in Missouri, it will come with a $5 million compulsive gambling fund that proponents hope will help the state avoid the rise in addiction other states have seen as bettors started placing bets from their homes.

Jack Cardetti, a spokesman for the Winning for Missouri Education, a group that supported the ballot initiative for sports betting last November, commented: “The beautiful thing about being the 39th state to do something is you are able to take a look at what has worked and what hasn’t worked in other states.”

Of the neighboring states, Missouri sports betting was the only one (save for Oklahoma) that had not legalized sports betting. Those who supported the ballot initiative argued that people had already crossed into neighboring states to gamble. Some of these, according to the argument, developed a gambling addiction that the state of Missouri was not prepared to handle. 

Gambling awareness fund

Cardetti has acknowledged the challenges of gambling and pointed to the solution: “If we’re going to have an expansion of gaming here in the state of Missouri, we also need to expand the resources.”

In 2023, Missouri spent $100,000 on problem gambling, compared to none the previous year. With sports betting now legal, supporters of the ballot initiative hope that betting tax revenue could help fund gambling treatment and prevention efforts.

A fiscal note for a previous sports betting bill estimates that the state’s betting tax revenue could range between $12.8 million and $20.5 million. According to the ballot initiative, at least $5 million of the annual revenue must be earmarked to support those who struggle with compulsive gambling. The state is still determining how best to use this budget.

Journey to legalization

The issue of sports betting in Missouri was placed on the ballot in November 2024 after surviving a lawsuit. Amendment 2 passed by the narrowest of margins, with the vote so close that the opposition was entitled to challenge it and ask for a recount. However, it declined to do so, paving the way for legal sports betting in Missouri to progress.

Missouri could begin issuing sports betting licenses in the summer, with Chairman of the Missouri Gaming Commission Jan Zimmerman saying that timeline looked more likely at the start of 2025. 

Health concerns

When sports betting was legalized in other states, calls to hotlines for problem gambling were noted to increase. In a poll of registered voters from September 2024, Fairleigh Dickinson University discovered that one-fourth of men under 30 engage in online sports betting, and 10% of these are considered problem gamblers. In contrast, only 3% of the overall US population is.