Missouri files bill to regulate Daily Fantasy Sports
The proposal would tax and classify Daily Fantasy Sports as gambling.
US.- Senator Scott Sifton (D-Affton) introduced a bill to tax, regulate and classify Daily Fantasy Sports (DFS) as gambling. The purpose of this proposal is to regulate daily fantasy sports just like casinos. This is the third bill on DFS introduced in the state. In the past, Governor Jay Nixon (D) called on state lawmakers to tax and to regulate the industry like gambling but although Senator Kurt Schaefer (R-Columbia) and Representative Scott Fitzpatrick (R-Shell Knob) both introduced bills on daily fantasy sports, neither of these proposals would tax the industry or classify daily fantasy sports as gambling.
“Right now the river boats are regulated and they are taxed. The daily fantasy sports industry is not. All we are doing is extending the existing regime to this new form of entertainment,” said Sifton. “If you’ve got certain kinds of gaming that are taxed at 21% and another form that is not taxed at all, that might create an incentive and distort the free market.”
Under Sifton’s bill daily fantasy sports companies would pay a 21 percent tax and players would have to be at least 21 years old. Tax revenue from the industry would be allocated in Missouri’s public schools.
“Tax revenues from one ought to be handled the same way as tax revenues from the other. I think it’s really important to keep it that way because if you acknowledge a willingness to potentially direct tax revenues elsewhere, you open Pandora’s box and it becomes a fight over who gets what slice of the pie. It makes it a lot harder to get this done in a way that I think is counter-productive,” added Sifton.
