{"id":9069,"date":"2026-04-02T05:55:43","date_gmt":"2026-04-02T10:55:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/westplexnews.com\/index.php\/2026\/04\/02\/video-lottery-bill-debate-shows-missouri-senate-resistance-to-expanded-gambling\/"},"modified":"2026-04-02T05:55:43","modified_gmt":"2026-04-02T10:55:43","slug":"video-lottery-bill-debate-shows-missouri-senate-resistance-to-expanded-gambling","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/westplexnews.com\/index.php\/2026\/04\/02\/video-lottery-bill-debate-shows-missouri-senate-resistance-to-expanded-gambling\/","title":{"rendered":"Video lottery bill debate shows Missouri Senate resistance to expanded gambling"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"
\n

Two “no-chance” gambling machines await customers in 2021 at a Columbia convenience store (Rudi Keller\/Missouri Independent).<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

A lawyer for a company hoping to break into Missouri\u2019s gambling market told a state Senate panel Wednesday that unregulated slot machines are siphoning millions from schools and that lawmakers should respond by legalizing video lottery games.<\/span><\/p>\n

Matt Hortenstine, chief counsel for Illinois-based J&J Ventures, called enforcement efforts a \u201cwhack-a-mole\u201d game unless retailers have a ready replacement for the machines currently proliferating in convenience stores, bars and fraternal halls around the state. If a particular form of unregulated game is found to be illegal under Missouri gambling laws, he said, developers will change the games and the process will start all over again.<\/span><\/p>\n

Local law enforcement doesn\u2019t have the resources to match the game vendors, he said.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe court can only address what comes before the court, that singular machine that is the subject matter of that criminal enforcement, and industry will adapt to it,\u201d Hortenstine said.<\/span><\/p>\n

Hortenstine was testifying Wednesday during a hearing of the Select Committee on Gaming in support of a <\/span>House-passed bill<\/span><\/a> that would give the Missouri Lottery Commission the authority to license video games for installation in retail locations across the state.<\/span><\/p>\n

During the hearing, the five-member committee heard conflicting arguments.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Promoters said video lottery would produce badly needed revenue for education and help retailers sustain their businesses. Opponents said lawmakers should let law enforcement push the unregulated games out of the state and that the bill violates constitutional restrictions on gambling and the way tax money from gambling is used.<\/span><\/p>\n

The bill has been one of the most heavily lobbied of the session. J&J employs 23 lobbyists, including 15 hired since the start of 2025. Torch Electronics of Wildwood, one of the biggest purveyors of the unregulated slot machines, employs 13 lobbyists.<\/span><\/p>\n

And all the players in the gambling industry have been heavy political contributors, giving $3.3 million to campaigns since the start of 2025. Casinos oppose the bill because they operate the only legal slot machines in the state. And Torch, which in past years opposed the legislation, is neutral this year because the bill does not bar the company from becoming licensed to provide video lottery terminals.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"
Senate President Pro Tem Cindy O\u2019Laughlin, a Republican from Shelbina, speaks to reporters during a March 12 news conference. (Annelise Hanshaw\/Missouri Independent)<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The bill<\/span><\/a> narrowly passed the House and it faces <\/span>an uncertain future<\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

Senate President Pro Tem Cindy O\u2019Laughlin, a Shelbina Republican who chairs the committee, told reporters after the hearing that her resistance to expanding gambling has not changed.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cMy position is that it is detrimental to family security,\u201d O\u2019Laughlin said.<\/span><\/p>\n

O\u2019Laughlin said she will meet individually with the committee\u2019s other four members before setting a date for a vote on the bill.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIf it were up to me, I would have had them all removed by now,\u201d O\u2019Laughlin said of the slot machines.<\/span><\/p>\n

Under the bill, the Missouri Lottery Commission would be given power to license retailers to offer up to eight video lottery terminals at a single location. The games would have to be in a designated area of the establishment, not visible from the entrance.<\/span><\/p>\n

It would be illegal for anyone under 21 to play and each game would have to pay out at least 80% of the money wagered. The profits would be split three ways, with the lottery taking 31% and retailers splitting the rest with game vendors.<\/span><\/p>\n

City and county governments would have 120 days after the bill takes effect to decide if they want to opt out of having video lottery games in their community.<\/span><\/p>\n

Other provisions would impose a $250 per machine fee to pay for services for people with developmental disabilities and increase the $2 boarding fee paid by casinos by adjusting it for inflation since 1993, when it was imposed.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

If the law was in effect now, the fee would increase to $4.56 on July 1. The fee pays for the operations of the Missouri Gaming Commission, which regulates casinos, and any money left over is used to fund veterans nursing homes. Under the bill, 50 cents of the fee would be dedicated to building a museum to house artifacts from the Arabia Steamboat Museum in Kansas City, which is <\/span>closing in November<\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

The <\/span>bill is estimated<\/span><\/a> to generate about $300 million in new revenue for education and $56 million for veterans services.<\/span><\/p>\n

With thousands of unregulated machines in operation around the state, the state is losing that revenue, said state Rep. Bill Hardwick, a Republican from Dixon and sponsor of the bill. He told the committee that ambiguities in state law make enforcement difficult.<\/span><\/p>\n

The bill will force retailers to remove unregulated slot machines within a year, he said.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe problem will never be resolved unless the legislature changes the law,\u201d Hardwick said.<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/strong><\/p>\n

Enforcement efforts<\/h4>\n

\t<\/p>\n

Since about 2019, Missouri has seen a proliferation of unregulated games. Owners contend they are legal under Missouri law because they have a \u201cpre-reveal\u201d feature that allows players to see if the next result is a winner before placing a bet.<\/span><\/p>\n

Torch calls them \u201cNo Chance Gaming,\u201d contending\u00a0 the pre-reveal feature removes the element of chance. Games based on chance, like a slot machine, are illegal under the Missouri Constitution outside of casinos or the lottery while games that have an element of skill are not.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

That legal uncertainty has also given the machines the name \u201cgray market games.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The Missouri State Highway Patrol <\/span>filed about 200 cases<\/span><\/a> with county prosecutors in 2019 and 2020, alleging the machines violate state law. But few actual charges were filed in court and most targeted convenience store owners for misdemeanor violations.<\/span><\/p>\n

Torch Electronics, the biggest player in the market, along with Warrenton Oil Co., one of its biggest clients, has pushed back aggressively both in courts and in the legislature. The companies <\/span>unsuccessfully sought a ruling<\/span><\/a> that its games were legal, and protected from enforcement, and is pursuing an appeal of a ruling that its games violate a city ordinance <\/span>passed in Springfield<\/span><\/a>.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"
The disclaimer prominently placed on all of the \u201cno-chance\u201d gaming machines placed in the state that declares it does not violate state law (Rudi Keller\/Missouri Independent).<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Enforcement efforts have ramped up again since a federal judge <\/span>ruled in February<\/span><\/a> that Torch\u2019s machines \u201cmeet the statutory definition of \u2018gambling device\u2019 and are therefore illegal under Missouri law when played outside a licensed casino.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Just before the decision, Attorney General Catherine Hanaway announced she was <\/span>cooperating with federal investigators<\/span><\/a> looking at the games and has since filed lawsuits and felony criminal charges against convenience store owners in <\/span>Greene<\/span><\/a> and <\/span>Dunklin<\/span><\/a> counties.<\/span><\/p>\n

Lawmakers should let those cases play out, said Marc Ellinger, general counsel for the Missouri Gaming Association, the lobbying organization for casinos.<\/span><\/p>\n

More than a century ago, Ellinger said, the courts ruled that games with pre-reveal features are illegal.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

In 1913, in a case out of Moberly, a restaurant owner who <\/span>had a gum dispenser<\/span><\/a> that also paid out tokens worth 5 cents each was found to be operating an illegal game even though customers knew if the next play would provide a win or just gum.<\/span><\/p>\n

The elements that made the gum dispensers illegal are the same elements present in the unregulated games, he said.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThey are not gray market machines,\u201d Ellinger said. \u201cThey are not no chance machines. They are illegal slot machines.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The bill is unconstitutional, Ellinger said, because it authorizes games of chance and because it diverts money from education programs. Only a statewide vote on a constitutional amendment would make them legal, he said.<\/span><\/p>\n

Scott Pool, an attorney for J&J, said the bill is constitutional. The revenue that would go to veterans and other programs are fees on the retailers and vendors, not money from players, he said.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe funding provisions are absolutely constitutional,\u201d he said.<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/strong><\/p>\n

Revenue needs<\/h4>\n

\t<\/p>\n

The money generated by unregulated machines has become a major source of support for convenience store owners, said Lynn Wallis, owner of a company that operates 50 convenience stores.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

When the machines were being introduced, she said, some retailers took them and others did not. The ones that did are enjoying larger profits, she said.<\/span><\/p>\n

Her company has 18 stores where the games are installed, she said, and took in more than $1.5 million in 2025.<\/span><\/p>\n

She estimated there are 30,000 to 40,000 unregulated machines across Missouri. There are approximately 13,000 slot machines at the state\u2019s regulated casinos.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWith all the machines that are generating this revenue, the state should be taking some advantage of that,\u201d Wallis said.<\/span><\/p>\n

Angie Schulte, lobbyist for Casey\u2019s General Stores, said the company studied what it would make if it put the games in their stores. Of the company\u2019s 400 stores in Missouri, 148 are large enough to house the games.<\/span><\/p>\n

With four to five games per store, she said, the company estimated it could increase profits by $63,000 in each location.<\/span><\/p>\n

There is no accounting of the amounts being wagered in the unregulated games. Based on Schulte\u2019s estimate of revenue and the low end of Wallis\u2019s estimate on the numbers, profits could be approaching $2 billion annually.<\/span>
\n<\/span>The state\u2019s revenue from gambling totaled about $700 million in the most recent fiscal year.<\/span><\/p>\n

At the 13 casinos, <\/span>$18.2 billion was wagered<\/span><\/a> and the state received $363 million from the 21% tax on the money from lost wagers.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

So far, tax revenue from casinos is up about 7.5% this fiscal year, meaning the amounts being lost are going up.<\/span><\/p>\n

Since Dec. 1, everyone over 21 with a smart phone can make bets on sporting events. In the first three months, <\/span>$1.2 billion was wagered<\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

The lottery sold $1.6 billion in tickets in the fiscal year that ended June 30 and provided $337 million for education programs. The lottery\u2019s net revenue is up about 4% so far in the current fiscal year.<\/span><\/p>\n

Missouri will need revenue if it wants to <\/span>eliminate the income tax<\/span><\/a>, Hortenstine said. Video lottery will keep its promise, unlike sports wagering, he said.<\/span><\/p>\n

During the campaign in 2024, promoters of sports wagering aired commercials that portrayed it as a boon to education funding.<\/span><\/p>\n

But that constitutional amendment included provisions allowing sports bookmakers to deduct all of their promotional costs from their net revenue. Betting began Dec. 1 and in the first two months, the dominant players in the market, FanDuel and DraftKings, paid no taxes and carried over paper losses into February. The total tax revenue was $659,196 from all sports books.<\/span><\/p>\n

Both companies reported net earnings in February and the total taxes from sports wagering for the month was $1.2 million.<\/span><\/p>\n

The results from sports betting should be a spur to act on the video lottery bill, Hortenstine said. Lawmakers were lobbied heavily to legalize sports betting before the initiative and lawmakers probably would have more strict limits on deductions for promotional costs.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cLet\u2019s finish the work and address this properly through the legislative process that you can control,\u201d Hortenstine said, \u201cand make the best possible solution to this problem.\u201d<\/span><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Two “no-chance” gambling machines await customers in 2021 at a Columbia convenience store (Rudi Keller\/Missouri Independent). A lawyer for a company hoping to break into Missouri\u2019s gambling market told a state Senate panel Wednesday that unregulated slot machines are siphoning millions from schools and that lawmakers should respond by legalizing video lottery games. Matt Hortenstine,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":9070,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_kadence_starter_templates_imported_post":false,"_kad_post_transparent":"","_kad_post_title":"","_kad_post_layout":"","_kad_post_sidebar_id":"","_kad_post_content_style":"","_kad_post_vertical_padding":"","_kad_post_feature":"","_kad_post_feature_position":"","_kad_post_header":false,"_kad_post_footer":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9069","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nVideo lottery bill debate shows Missouri Senate resistance to expanded gambling - WestplexNews.com<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/westplexnews.com\/index.php\/2026\/04\/02\/video-lottery-bill-debate-shows-missouri-senate-resistance-to-expanded-gambling\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Video lottery bill debate shows Missouri Senate resistance to expanded gambling - WestplexNews.com\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Two “no-chance” gambling machines await customers in 2021 at a Columbia convenience store (Rudi Keller\/Missouri Independent). 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A lawyer for a company hoping to break into Missouri\u2019s gambling market told a state Senate panel Wednesday that unregulated slot machines are siphoning millions from schools and that lawmakers should respond by legalizing video lottery games. 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