Good News For Missouri
Good News For Missouri
Opponents of Missouri's sports betting ballot initiative have pulled more than $1 million ads in the final weeks before voting.
The Bulletin Board
NEWS: Good tidings for Missouri’s sports betting ballot initiative.
LEGAL and REGULATORY UPDATES: Colorado tribal lawsuit; MA DFS class action suit; Texas casino support.
NEWS: FanDuel adds Hybrid Dealer games to its online casinos.
VIEWS: The Massachusetts online lottery will use a typical Massachusetts launch timeline, which creates a $100 million budget hole.
AROUND the WATERCOOLER: The return of bad actors and tainted assets.
STRAY THOUGHTS: The future is bright.
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Missouri Sports Betting
The opposition to Missouri’s sports betting ballot initiative, the Missourians Against the Deceptive Online Gambling Amendment, canceled $1.2 million of ads in the weeks leading up to the election.
At the same time, the pro side, Winning for Missouri Education, has released another ad with St. Louis Cardinals legend Ozzie Smith.
Per local press, “The ads are being pulled so the campaign can shift to more direct contacts, said Brooke Foster, a spokeswoman for Missourians Against the Deceptive Online Gambling Amendment.”
“While the out-of-state online gambling corporations continue to throw millions of dollars at misleading TV ads, we have decided to focus our efforts on grassroots outreach and community conversations during the two and a [half] weeks that remain before Election Day,” Foster said in an email.
However, if we read between the lines, this could be a subtle admission the support side is winning. The opposition side faced an uphill battle, being outspent three-to-one and trying to close the gap on an August poll that had support at the magical 50% mark, with only 30% opposed and 20% undecided.
According to Foster, the “no” ads have been effective and shrunk the gap: “It’s definitely tightened,” Foster said. “It’s margin of error type close, so we’re really pleased to see that.”
The ad cancellation indicates otherwise. If the ads were effective, and the vote is “margin of error close,” why would you stop running them?
Legal and Regulatory Updates: Colorado Tribal Lawsuit; MA Class Action Suit; Texas Casino Support
Colorado requests dismissal of a tribal sports betting lawsuit: Colorado has asked a state court to dismiss the claims from the Southern Ute Indian Tribe and Ute Mountain Ute Tribe. The tribes allege the state has blocked them from entering the Colorado mobile sports betting market in violation of their compacts. Per the state’s filing: “The Tribes’ position is substantively incorrect. However, this Court need not address the merits of this case because it lacks subject matter jurisdiction over the Tribes’ claims and the Tribes fail to state a claim.”
MA class action lawsuit against three DFS companies: Underdog (a newsletter sponsor), PrizePicks, and Yahoo Fantasy are facing a new class action lawsuit in Massachusetts that claims the companies’ offerings constituted illegal sports betting in the state. An Underdog spokesperson told SBC Americas it was “a press release searching for a legal theory” and that it was clear the plaintiff was unfamiliar with the product offerings. “It’s a completely transparent fishing attempt by a plaintiff’s lawyer, and it will get dismissed sooner rather than later.”
Dallas Cowboys co-owner Charlotte Jones on sports betting: Texas sports betting has a vocal supporter in Cowboys co-owner Charlotte Jones, who told CBS News Texas, “We’re hoping to get back in there and really bring it to voters. It’s our decision, as Texans, to decide how our state is regulated. In this case, when we’re usually against regulation, this is about the safety of our kids, the safety of our teenagers, and this is why we need this regulation now.” Of course, Texas has numerous hurdles to overcome, even though overall optimism is high.
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Quick Hitter: FanDuel Partners With Inspired for Hybrid Dealer Games
Interesting development on the online casino front as FanDuel and Inspired Gaming have announced a partnership to add Inspired’s Hybrid Dealer Games to the FanDuel online casino — Hybrid Dealer games are also available at BetMGM and Caesars in certain markets.
Per the press release: “Hybrid Dealer is a new patented, game-changing online product category that offers players casino and gameshow content without the challenges associated with live-dealer products.”
Hybrid Dealer Games are a cross between traditional online content and live-dealer games that use green screens and CGI to simulate a live dealer environment, with outcomes determined by RNG rather than by physical hardware.
Inspired’s Virtual Sports products (something I’ve been interested in since 2017) haven’t caught on in the US, but the Hybrid Dealer games seem like a good fit for how US customers consume casino content.
MA Online Lottery Is Already Disappointing
The authorization of online lottery sales in Massachusetts was supposed to bring in $100 million in FY2025 (which ends June 30, 2025). However, as State Treasurer Deborah Goldberg warned the legislature, online lottery products are unlikely to be available before the end of FY2025, and now it looks like FY2026 is also in jeopardy.
Per the Commonwealth Beacon, “Treasurer Deb Goldberg announced a new timeline for the online lottery on Tuesday, saying the initiative will not launch until April 2026, near the end of fiscal 2026.”
At a recent Chamber of Commerce event, Goldberg raised a second issue: the estimated revenue from iLottery sales has already been revised from $100 million to $70 million in Year 1.
Senate President Karen Spilka has also raised concerns about the ‘hidden’ costs of online gambling, telling the Commonwealth Beacon in May, “There are folks though that also say that will increase addiction to the lottery and increase costs both for the state and for families. More families will experience financial issues because of that.”
The question is, how will lawmakers plug what looks to be a $100 million budget hole this year? While the revenue doesn’t have to come from gambling, given the source of the budget gap, lawmakers might reconsider bumping up the tax rate on sports betting operators (an idea introduced late in the 2024 session after Illinois increased its sports betting tax rate).
The 2024 effort to increase the sports betting tax rate sought a bump from 20% to 51%. That effort was quickly rejected, even though Massachusetts is surrounded by states with exorbitant sports betting tax rates, except for Connecticut:
New York: 51%
Rhode Island: 51%
Connecticut: 13.75%
New Hampshire: 51%
Vermont: 31-33%
A more modest increase could have a chance. A 5% increase to the current 20% tax rate would add about $30 million in annual tax revenue. If Massachusetts wanted to jump up to Vermont (which is still somehow low for the region), the annual increase would be around $75 million, assuming the increase doesn’t change market dynamics… which it will.
Another (far less likely) option is authorizing online casino gambling, as the state would have little trouble getting operators to pay an upfront licensing fee of $10 million or more.
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Around the Watercooler
Social media conversations, rumors, and gossip.
It’s the return of the Bad Actor/Tainted Assets clause if California tribes get their way:
For those that might be unfamiliar, when online poker legalization was all the rage, a major sticking point in California was the potential presence of PokerStars, with tribes seeking to keep the #1 operator in the world on the sidelines via a bad actor clause.
Of note, Nevada did enact a bad actor/tainted asset clause that has kept PokerStars out of the market, and New Jersey used a “penalty box” to keep PokerStars out of the market for 2.5 years. During its legalization debate, Illinois considered a bad actor clause to keep DraftKings and FanDuel out of the sports betting market.
Sweepstakes will once again be front and center during the Indian Gaming Association’s New Normal Webinar series on Wednesday, with Jeremy Kudon of the Sports Betting Alliance joining host Victor Rocha and Jason Giles — you can register here.
Stray Thoughts
At our martial arts school, our younger students write essays before belt promotions. Most of these are precisely what you’d expect from a 7-11-year-old, but some truly blow me away and restore my hope in future generations.