Lawmakers Renew Debate on Illegal Gaming, Sports Wagering in Missouri

The yearly debates to delineate the legality issues of gambling machines have started in the state of Missouri. The lawmakers are probing into the legality of the ‘pre-reveal’ gambling machines. ‘Pre-reveal’ gambling machines have become so prevalent throughout the state that lawmakers are trying their best to curb its growth. Senator Hegeman’s bill names ‘pre-reveal’ games illegal and claims that the prosecution does not need legislation to act against it. Moreover, the bill would allow games only in the 13 licensed casinos and come with tenders to establish video terminals for the Missouri lottery.

However, the debate about ‘pre-reveal’ games has sparked several debates around the state. Senator Hegeman considers these gaming machines to be illegal and points out an incident in Platte county where a casino was filed, and the machines were destroyed for entertaining these game machines. According to him, the lack of interest in prosecution and the destruction of machines makes the games hardly give the impression of legality in Platte county.

Tom Robbins from Strategic Capitol Consulting, on the other hand, claims that the games cannot be called gambling as they are not games of chance. These games help the players to know the outcomes before funneling more money into it, and there is hardly anything illegal about it. Moreover, the accusations claimed that these are intricate plots to put a prominent seller, Torch Electronics, of these games out of business in the state of Missouri. Yet, these claims were not as impressive as they should have been, and Torch Electronics is currently facing felony charges and also filed a case against the state in Cole county to establish their legality.

The games by Torch operate like slots, but they are claimed to be ‘no-chance’ games. However, it is illegal to operate these machines outside Casinos, and the company is thrashed by the state for illegal gambling. As the bill also goes into sports wagering, influential people like Senator Hoskins have been trying to make Missouri legalize it. However, there are objections to allowing sports wagering in casinos without the $2 fee for in-person bets. Still, Senator Hoskins seems positive about “getting something passed.”

The Missouri Lottery is one of the successful names in the industry, with a revenue of around $345 million in the previous year alone. The bill sponsored by Hoskins has plans for the expansion of the lottery with new video terminals to easy accessibility. The bets start from as little as a cent up to 5 dollars with rewards fixed at $1000. This emphasis given to video lottery is expected to open gates for crypto lottery as well.

Roxanne Williams

Roxanne Williams has recently joined as a market reporter for CryptoNewsZ - the 24/7 crypto news site, where she produces recent stories, technical analysis and price updates on world's leading cryptocurrencies.

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