A Paper Response To Sports Gambling. 

A Response To Sports Gambling

Held, By Someone Who Can’t Gamble

Deacon Lipsmeyer Political Science 102 May 8, 2023

“I’ll bet you twenty bucks that Alabama will win March Madness this year.” These were the words I said just one month ago when I was talking with my friends about one of the biggest basketball games of the year. Yet, according to the current legislation on sports gambling in Missouri , I should be fined and sentenced to time in prison. I’m not though, and that shows the biggest issue with the out of date laws, which are somehow still in place throughout the country. A law which no one follows, and is not properly enforced is not a just law. However, nearly one fifth of adults in the United States claim to have personally bet money on sports within the last year. How can that be, if Americans are really as against gambling as politicians tell us, why do one fifth of them still bet on sports? The truth is, reports show that fifty seven percent of Americans believe that its legalization would be neither a good nor bad thing. Can you imagine getting fifty seven percent of Americans to agree on anything? Currently thirty five states have made the ultimate push to legalize the practice. With so many more on the way however, it is no surprise that there is incredible incentive for Missouri to be the next state to do so. Missouri already has experience in specialized gambling, with the state's history of river boat gambling. They also already have the plans laid out for exactly how they would implement it.

The legislation on sports gambling is incredibly sparse, with the only real law on the issue being the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act. Drafted in the Senate in 1992, the act states “It shall be unlawful for a person to sponsor, operate, advertise, or promote, a lottery, sweepstakes, or other betting, gambling, or wagering on one or more competitive games or on one or more athletes.” The law also went on to outline the punishments for violating the new set of rules which no one asked for, all because the four major sports leagues of the time were concerned over the integrity of games which could be bet on. One vote in the Senate and a signature from President George H.W. Bush, was all that it took to effectively shut down any conversation over the morality of sports gambling; that is until 2007.

In 2007 we saw the first real fight for resistance against PASPA. It was the state of New Jersey which filed the first federal lawsuit, seeking to eliminate the unjust law. Their argument was that legislation such as PASPA were in strong violation to the tenth amendment and the protection it grants against any federal anti-commandeering laws. Unsurprisingly this lawsuit was strongly opposed by all of the major U.S sports leagues, including the NCAA. This lawsuit eventually reached the Supreme Court, and is known as Murphy v National Collegiate Athletic Association in June of 2017. It was this court case which went on to dismantle the unfair regulation of PASPA, with Justice Samuel Alito giving the majority opinion “Congress can regulate sports gambling directly, but if it elects not to do so, each State is free to act on its own. Our job is to interpret the law Congress has enacted and decide whether it is consistent with the Constitution. PASPA is not. PASPA “regulates states governments’ regulation” of their citizens. The Constitution gives Congress no such power.” From this point on, it was officially the wild west of sports gambling, and the states were more than happy to participate.

After the dismantlement of PASPA in the United States Supreme Court, a plethora of states came out of the woodworks, all hoping to legalize their own version of sports gambling. In 2018, seven states legalized the practice, and in the four years since then, the amount of states which have chosen legalization has gone up by over five hundred percent. Since then, there has been a lot of education about the fiscal benefits that sports gambling brings. The mean tax rate charged by the states currently sits around thirteen and a half percent.

There are three different places that this money typically goes. In states like Arkansas, or Indiana, or Pennsylvania, the money goes to what is called a general fund. Funds, which are subject to the digression of the state, are spent however the state wishes. Then there are states like Colorado, and Illinois, in which the money goes to a public fund. These are funds set up to further public works projects, such as the building of roads and schools. The last and final path that the states have taken is the most interesting. In states like New Hampshire, and Tennessee, the funds actually go to the state’s Education Department. The proof is in the pudding. In 2022 Arkansas made nearly three hundred million dollars in state taxes from their choice to legalize the practice. So the question is, if Arkansas can do it, why can’t Missouri?

Unsurprisingly, they can. In fact, right now in the Missouri state Senate, there is a bill being presented that would accomplish just that. The bill is called SB 643, and would allow legal sports gambling on the popular river boat casinos in the state, as well as fully legalize gambling over the Internet to residents throughout the state. The bill also proposes a licensing fee of fifty thousand dollars just to be granted a certificate of authority, which would allow for the casinos to operate a fully legal sports gambling operation. This initial fee is then followed by a eighty thousand dollar yearly fee to keep the license. Then lastly a twenty one percent tax on gross revenue made by the casinos.

Missouri plans to mimic states such as Tennessee and New Hampshire, by pledging to donate all taxes collected to the Department of Education. This department deserves as much funding as it can get. Two years ago Missouri was ranked second to last in the nation in state sponsored school funding. If Arkansas, a state with under half the population of Missouri, can pull in three hundred million dollars in revenue from one year of legalized sports gambling, then there is no reason to believe that the state cannot double those numbers, and take in over half a billion dollars for the benefit of its children.

Of course there will be an outcast of the population who are against such legislation. In states like Florida, when legislation such as this was introduced in the House, they were met with sharp protests against expanding the current legislature. This eventually resulted in Mike Beltran, member of the Florida House of Representatives saying, “I'm always going to be against raising taxes, but if we desperately needed the money, we could raise taxes.” These people claimed that the true cost of expanding gambling is not that of increasing income for the state, but that of increasing rates of addiction and suicide. Yet protests such as this one are not common. The only other group that fits such a staunch opposition for gambling is the majority of the Christian faith. The thing that upsets them about gambling is that it is viewed as immoral and taught against in the Bible. However this bill is not for the Christian population, because they already don’t gamble. This bill is not asking them to gamble in the new casinos, or bet on sports teams. It is just opening the door to those who wish to gamble legally. This bill is not about mandating gambling, it is about granting legal adults the freedom of choice. Those who wish to not participate are more than welcome not to do so, in the same way that those who do, should be more than welcome to gamble in our state.

That’s what this is all about, grating the citizens of Missouri the choice to spend their money how they wish. The days of PASPA are over, and in six years over half the country realized the error of their ways. The Missouri House of Representatives agrees, passing the bill one hundred and eighteen to thirty five. While the bill has faced difficulties in the state Senate, with only a few concessions, this bill has the possibility to do incredible things for the citizens of Missouri, with near bipartisan indifference from the citizens of the state. It’s no wonder that year after year, bills like this keep getting presented for approval. Now is the time to give the great people of Missouri exactly what it is they deserve. In less than six years, the state has turned into a sports powerhouse, playing in three of the last four Super Bowls, as well as hosting games for the 2026 FIFA World Cup. It is that kind of success that makes the people of Missouri want now more than ever to be able to gamble on their favorite team. The House of Representatives think so, Democrats think so, Republicans think so. Legislators might say that they do but talk is cheap, and without action, without the passing of this bill, their words are meaningless. Missouri needs to pass SB63, and they need to do it fast.

Primary Sources

Hoskins, Denny. “ SB 643, Authorizes Sports Wagering.” Missouri Senate. 8/28/2022. https://www.senate.mo.gov/22info/BTS_Web/Bill.aspx?SessionType=R&BillID=71259796 

Galloway, Nicole. “Elementary and Secondary Education Funding Trends” Missouri State Auditor. 5/2021. https://auditor.mo.gov/AuditReport/ViewReport?report=2021027 

“Murphy v National Collegiate Athletic Association” The Supreme Court. 5/14/2018. https:// www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/17pdf/16-476_dbfi.pdf 

“Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act.” Congress. 10/28/1992. https:// www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/STATUTE-106/pdf/STATUTE-106-Pg4227.pdf 

Secondary Sources

Anders, Gary. Siegel, Donald. “Public Policy and the Displacement Effects of Casinos: A Case Study of Riverboat Gambling in Missouri.” Arizona State University West. 1999. https:// mail.google.com/mail/u/0/#inbox?projector=1

Auxier, Richard. “States Learn To Bet On Sports: The Prospects and Limitations of Taxing Legal Sports Gambling.” Tax Policy Center. 5/14/2019. https://mspolicy.org/wp-content/ uploads/2019/06/states-learn-to-bet-on-sports_2.pdf

Brainerd, Jack. “The Early Bets Are In: Is Sports Betting Paying Off?” National Conference of State Legislatures. 3/1/2021 https://www.ncsl.org/fiscal/the-early-bets-are-in-is-sports- betting-paying-off 

Bonesteel, Matt. “Sports betting timeline: From Las Vegas to the Supreme Court.” The Washington Post. 8/29/2022. https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/08/29/history- of-sports-gambling/ 

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Gramlich, John. “As More States Legalize the Practice, 19% of U.S. Adults Say They Have Bet Money on Sports in the Past Year” Pew Research Center. 9/14/22. https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2022/09/14/as-more-states-legalize-the-practice-19-of-u- s-adults-say-they-have-bet-money-on-sports-in-the-past-year/  

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Malnar, Savannah. “Murphy’s Law: How to Avoid Going Wrong with Federal Regulation of Sports Gambling.” Vanderbilt University. 12-2020. https://scholarship.law.vanderbilt.edu/ cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1004&context=jetlaw 

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McQuillian, Sam. “Where is Sports Betting Legal? Projections for All 50 States” Actionnetwork. 2/12/23. https://www.actionnetwork.com/news/legal-sports-betting-united-states- projections 

Meer, Eric. “The Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act (PASPA) A Bad Bet for The States.” 1/10/2012. https://scholars.law.unlv.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi? article=1026;context=glj 

“Missouri House Votes To Legalize Sports Gambling” Associative Press. 3/22/2023. https:// apnews.com/article/sports-betting-missouri-2ee86a985af471fffda4a75197dd9650 

Polisano, Christopher. “Betting Against PASPA: Why the Federal Restrictions on Sports Gambling Are Unconstitutional and How They Hurt the State.” Villanova University. 8/1/2018. https://digitalcommons.law.villanova.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi? article=1372&context=mslj 

Schneider, Tori. “Protesters rally at Capitol agains gambling expansion on second day of special session” Tallahassee Democrat. 5/18/2021. https://www.tallahassee.com/story/news/politics/2021/05/18/protesters-rally-capitol-against-gambling-expansion-during-second- day-special-session/5128094001/ 

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Yakowicz, Will. “Where Is Sports Betting Legal? A Guide To All 50 States” Forbes. 1/9/2023.https://www.forbes.com/sites/willyakowicz/2023/01/09/where-is-sports-betting-legal- america-2022/?sh=8df1bb2386b9