ST. LOUIS—Missouri voters will still have the chance to vote in November on whether the state should legalize sports wagering, after a judge rejected a challenge questioning the method the Secretary of State’s office and local election authorities used to certify the measure.

What You Need To Know

  • The lawsuit questioned the methodology used by the Secretary of State's office and local election authorities to certify the sports wagering initiative petition amendment appearing on the November ballot

  • The suit also said that promoters gathered illegal signatures in the first and fifth congressional districts

  • Cole County Judge Daniel Green rejected those claims in a ruling Friday afternoon

  • The parties presented no evidence in Missouri history where a judge had removed an initiative petition amendment from a ballot

The suit also claimed that some of the signatures on the initiative petitions in the first and fifth congressional districts were invalid.

“Lawsuits seeking to remove an initiative petition from the ballot after it was certified as sufficient by the Secretary are highly disfavored,” Cole County Judge Daniel Green wrote in his opinion issued late Friday afternoon. “The parties have not identified any case in the history of Missouri where a Plaintiff has succeeded in removing an initiative from the ballot through a certification challenge.”

Citing a legal precedent that such challenges must be met with “restraint, trepidation and a healthy suspicion of the partisan who would use the judiciary to prevent the initiative process from taking its course,” Green rejected all counts brought by plaintiffs

“Today’s ruling, while expected, is nevertheless a big victory for Missourians, who overwhelmingly want to join the 38 other states that allow sports betting, so that we can provide tens of millions in permanent, dedicated funding each year to our public schools,” said Jack Cardetti, a spokesperson for the coalition of professional sports teams behind the initiative petition question that will show up as Amendment 2 in November.

The teams, including the St. Louis Cardinals, St. Louis Blues, Kansas City Chiefs and Kansas City Royals would control onsite betting and advertising near their stadiums.

Thirty-eight states and the District of Columbia already offer some form of sports wagering, which has expanded rapidly since the U.S. Supreme Court cleared the way for it in 2018. Missouri sports teams turned to the initiative process after efforts to legalize sports betting were repeatedly thwarted in the state Senate.

Tuesday is the last day to make any changes to the November ballot, including through legal action.