Officials are expressing optimism that gaming revenues are on the upswing in 2021, which would be a welcome benefit to local governments.
The Missouri Gaming Commission held its monthly meeting in St. Joseph on Wednesday. Pat Conway, a member of the commission from St. Joseph, said there was a big drop in funds from gaming in 2020 as casinos had social distancing measures in place as well as being shut down for a couple of months.
“When we’re doing comparisons now of the revenue coming in … basically we’re looking at 2019, so there’s been almost a three-year reduction, and it certainly has limited what the city and the county can do with the expenditures,” Conway said.
According to reports from the Buchanan County Commission, the county and the city each received about $638,000 as a share of gaming revenue in 2020, with two months where there was no money shared at all due to shutdowns. This came after revenue was already trending down in 2019 due to the casino flooding, when $794,000 was received. The year 2018 brought in about $960,000.
In the current year, the trend is looking to turn around as the city and the county already have collected $610,000 in gaming revenue each, with five months still remaining.
“Our numbers are starting to go up this year. I think people are getting back to actively gambling,” Buchanan County Western District Commissioner Ron Hook said.
Conway said sports gambling could be on the horizon. He said he believes other states are benefiting from sports gambling, and Missouri should do so as well.
“I think the legislature will address it in the upcoming session next year. We’re already noticing that bordering states like Illinois and Iowa have already approved sports wagering,” Conway said. “Some of the revenue that was going into those states, the state of Missouri could get.”
“Every time somebody walks through the gate of the gaming floor, we receive $1 … so if they have to go to that gaming floor to place a bet on sports … we would get that dollar and the city would get a dollar.”
Hook said the county uses a lot of the gambling money it receives to fund the Social Welfare Board, which has been operating on thin margins since the pandemic limited its budget and made fundraising difficult.
State Sen. Dan Hegeman, R-Cosby, hinted at the beginning of Wednesday’s meeting there would be bills presented regarding gaming and potential sports gaming in the next legislative session.
Be the first to comment