History
Missouri is one of the states defined by gambling laws that limit casinos to boat facilities on two main rivers, or on artificial bodies of water within 1000 feet of those rivers. The state long feared the infiltration of criminal activity if gambling was to be allowed and was thus a considerable late comer to the gambling table.
For a casino to be licenced and operate legally it has to exist on a boat on the two allocated rivers or on an artificial moat 1000 feet near them. In the past these riverboats had to actually cruise and gambling time was limited to every two hours at boarding. The laws have since changed to allow boats to remain docked and thus many of the Missouri casinos are now on barges that never move.
Missouri opened four new casinos at the same time in august 1992.
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1980 – 1992
Gambling was first legalised in 1980 when charitable bingo was introduced. In 1984 track betting was legalised too. 8 years later in 1992 riverboat casinos were legalised by way of a mass vote. Shortly after the vote past, in August of that year, Missouri’s first ever casinos, four big riverboat casinos, sprang to life. That number has since grown to 13 where it holds steady.
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1993 – Present
Online gambling remains a bit of a grey area in MO however. Fantasy Sports betting is allowed as of 2016, but short of that, there is no legal allocation for online gambling yet.
By Jane Shaw
Editor at Casinos.US
Updated: January 16, 2024
