JEFFERSON CITY — Missourians will have to wait to place their bets this coming fall after a recent decision by the state government.

Secretary of State Denny Hoskins denied the Missouri Gaming Commission's submission for emergency rules regarding online sports wagering.

The commission's goal was to begin accepting applications on June 30, in hopes to be ready for the start of the 2025 football season. Now, it will have to wait until Aug. 30.

The application process itself is the longest part of getting sports gambling up and running.

"He rejected that it was an emergency, so the permanent rules will not go into effect until Aug. 30," Missouri Gaming Commission Chair Jan Zimmerman said of Hoskins' decision. "He didn't really feel that it rose to the level of the criteria required for an emergency.".

Applications for both individual retail licenses as well as large corporate untethered licenses for gambling moguls like FanDuel and Caesars, include an extensive background check.

"The background investigation is pretty extensive, the fact that preseason in the NFL will have already started, we won't be able to start this by the time football season starts," Zimmerman said.

In an opinion piece on Monday, Hoskins said, "We cannot afford to rush through this process for the sake of a deadline that can easily be met through standard procedures."

This comes in reference to an online sports wagering initiative petition that states sports betting must go live by Dec. 1 at the latest.

"The application is long, and we require a lot of information from individuals who are applying for license," Zimmerman said. "In a perfect world we get all the right information the first time, never happens."

Another factor adding to the application process is the law that every person working in an in-person sportsbook must have their own individual retail license from the Missouri Gaming Commission.

Professional sports teams like the Kansas City Chiefs and St. Louis Cardinals will be allowed to obtain retail licenses to operate in-person sportsbooks at their sports districts.

This means areas like Ballpark Village outside of Busch Stadium in St. Louis will see a sports betting venue on site.

"Because the rules won't go into effect until August the 30th, what that means is we won't even be able to start accepting applications until that date," Zimmerman said.

With the 2025 NFL regular season set to begin on Sept. 5, it is unlikely any sportsbooks will be able to legally receive bets in time for opening kickoff.

Once Missourians are able to legally bet on sports, they will be able to place bets on both professional and in-state college teams such as Mizzou and Missouri State.

This comes as a relief to many in 14 states and Washington D.C. where legal sports betting was banned on in-state college games.

Citizens however will not be able to place player prop bets on in-state college games. This ban is shared in 23 of the 38 states with legalized sports gambling.