Jefferson City

Missouri lawmakers have touted broad support from Missourians for legalized Sports Betting, but new polling casts doubt on that argument.

The poll, released Thursday by Saint Louis University and British pollster YouGov, found that a plurality of 41% of those surveyed disagreed that Betting on college and professional sports should be legal, while 35% agreed. The remaining 24% said they were not sure.

While the full poll surveyed 900 likely Missouri voters, the sports betting question had a sample size of 443 people. It was conducted between Feb. 8 and 14 and has a margin of error of 5.50%. The full poll, which had a margin of error of 3.72%, asked voters to weigh in on a host of other issues, including gun control.

Steve Rogers, an associate professor of political science at Saint Louis University who directed the poll, said he was surprised by the percentage of Missourians who did not support sports betting.

“It’s largely assumed that voters are in favor of sports betting,” he said. “I don’t want to go that far and say voters are opposed to sports betting, but at least this is suggestive evidence to me that maybe it isn’t as supported…”

In fact, Rogers said he thought sports betting was going to be so popular that SLU and YouGov decided to survey a smaller sample size than the rest of the poll. He said he regrets that decision.

Voter support of sports gambling has largely been a foregone conclusion in the Missouri Capitol. Lobbyists and lawmakers have frequently pointed to the number of gamblers who have been blocked trying to access online sportsbooks in Missouri.

State Sen. Tony Luetkemeyer, a Parkville Republican, told The Star before the release of Thursday’s poll that a large number of his constituents have urged him to make sports betting a priority.

Luetkemeyer’s bill, which would legalize and tax sports betting, could be debated in the full Senate shortly after the legislature returns from break at the end of the month, he said.

“I can tell you anecdotally that there are a lot of people in my district who would like to see us get this done,” he said.

The poll found that support for sports gambling was higher in Kansas City and St. Louis, the state’s largest cities. The two cities are also home to the state’s major sports teams.

In more rural parts of the state — in northeast, southwest and southeast Missouri — more people were against legalized gambling.

“There could be some very intense policy commanders maybe coming from these cities saying we want sports betting,” Rogers said. “But the state isn’t as on board as much as I anticipated.”