Thursday’s certification of statewide voting results means that Amendment 2 has officially made sports wagering legal in Missouri despite some last-minute uncertainty. The ballot measure for Amendment 2 passed with 50.05% of the vote according to final results.
That official tally mimics earlier unofficial counts and triggers a statutory provision that allows for a recount. A recount seems unlikely, however, because the main opposition group shared that it will not request such action.
While Amendment 2 technically makes sports betting legal in Missouri immediately, the regulated system for sports wagering in Missouri will not ramp up for months. License applicants and regulators have much to do in that time.
Amendment 2 squeaks by in final count
According to Summer Ballentine and David A. Lieb of the Associated Press, state election officials signed certification documents on Dec. 5, 2024, completing the vote tabulation in Missouri for 2024. While Election Day was Nov. 5, precincts were still tabulating outstanding absentee, military, and provisional ballots that could affect some contests.
Amendment 2 was perhaps the most notorious of those races, as the unofficial count after Election Day had the referendum passing by a total of just 7,500 votes statewide. With millions of dollars spent on campaigns both in opposition to and support of Amendment 2, the possibility of a recount remained as long as the vote stayed close.
In theory, that could still happen. Practically speaking, though, there would be little upside for the opposition.
Outside chance of a recount on Amendment 2
Missouri law has no automatic recount triggers. It does allow for parties to request recounts when the vote margin is within half of a percent.
As Amendment 2 passed with only 50.05% of the vote, the provision applies. The fact that an interested party has to initiate the process means it’s unlikely to happen, though.
Ballentine and Lieb report that current Missouri Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft has rendered his opinion that such a request would have to come from a person involved in one of the campaigns.
While there is some debate over whether that is true, it seems a moot point. A spokesperson for the Amendment 2 opposition campaign shared with Ballentine and Lieb that it does not plan to request a recount.
The opposition reached that decision likely as a result of the fact that recounts in Missouri have rarely overturned results. Even at a margin of just 0.05%, with over three million ballots cast on the issue, canvassers would have to find over 150,000 ballots either inaccurately counted or not recorded to change the outcome.
With Amendment 2 firmly entrenched, parties are moving on to rolling out regulated sports wagering in Missouri. That should occur sometime in 2025.
Bringing Missouri sportsbooks to life will take months yet
For at least the next several months, Missourians who want to bet on sporting events online legally will still need to cross state lines into Arkansas, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, or Tennessee. The statutory deadline in Amendment 2 for Missouri regulators to launch sportsbooks is Dec. 1, 2025.
While sportsbook operators would likely love to start taking bets in time for the 2025-26 NFL season, whether that happens will depend on several factors.
Amendment 2 sets a rudimentary framework for legal wagering in Missouri but enabling legislation to fill out the regulated system is still necessary. The speed of launch partially depends on how quickly the Missouri legislature supplies that.
From there, it’s a matter of processing license applications, inspecting systems, and testing products. It’s likely that physical sportsbooks inside Missouri casinos will open before online wagering goes live.
According to Missouri Gaming Commission Executive Director Mike Leara, the body is targeting late spring or early summer to have sports betting live in some form. Whenever it occurs in 2025, Amendment 2 has put Missouri on course to make that happen.
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