Lawsuit looks to stop legalized sports betting in Missouri on November ballots

ST. LOUIS, Mo. (First Alert 4) - A new lawsuit looks to invalidate signatures gathered to get legalized sports betting on November ballots in Missouri.

Jacqueline Wood and Blake Lawrence are suing Missouri Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft for allegedly not following constitutional procedure in gathering signatures for ballot initiatives.

The plaintiffs allege that Secretary Ashcroft violated the Missouri Constitution by calculating the number of signatures needed because Secretary Ashcroft was required, but failed, to take the total number of people who voted for governor in 2020, multiply that number by 8%, and then divide that number equally among Missouri’s eight Congressional Districts.

As a result, the Sports Wagering Petition did not have enough valid signatures in the First and Fifth Congressional Districts, the lawsuit alleges.

The plaintiffs claim to live in the First and Fifth Congressional Districts.

District 1 covers the St. Louis area and District 5 covers Kansas City.

“I do think there is at least some merit to it,” said area lawyer Brady McAninch of Hipskind & McAninch, LLC. “This will come. If for some reason this is invalidated, they will follow the proper steps next time. We’re delaying the inevitable.”

Saint Louis University (SLU) conducted a poll earlier this year on sports betting.

“We found an overwhelming majority of voters thought that individuals who are 21 years or older think that Missourians should have the ability to bet on professional sports,” said SLU associate professor of political science Steven Rogers.

The coalition behind the ballot initiative sent First Alert Four the following message from the president of the St. Louis Cardinals:

“All six Missouri professional sports teams support Amendment 2, which would make Missouri the 39th state to legalize sports betting, while providing tens of millions in new funding for Missouri classrooms each year. This effort to decertify our ballot initiative is completely without merit, as Missourians came out in force to sign the petition that will be on the ballot in November.”

Lawyers for the plaintiffs didn’t return First Alert 4’s request for comment as of Friday night.