Missouri Excursion Gambling Boat Home Dock Siting Law

Missouri's casino industry runs entirely on excursion gambling boats, there are no land-based casinos and no local zoning ordinance can create one. Authority traces to Mo. Const. Art. III, § 39(e), adopted by voters in 1994 and amended in 1998, which limits gambling to boats and floating facilities on the Mississippi and Missouri Rivers, including artificial spaces that contain water and that are within 1000 feet of the closest edge of the main channel of either river, the constitutional basis for the moat-style basins at casinos like Ameristar St.

Charles and Harrah's North Kansas City. " Only after that local yes-vote does the Commission decide the number, location, and type of boats for that home-dock city or county. 10(3) the actual gambling can happen "at any point on the Mississippi River or the Missouri River during an excursion," so cruising boats are not confined to the home dock's city limits once underway. 822 collects 10 percent of the state's 21 percent tax on adjusted gross receipts, earmarked for public-safety services tied to the boat.

Operating a gambling excursion without a Commission license, or running gambling other than as RSMo § 313.817 specifies, is a class E felony under RSMo § 313.830(1)-(2). The Commission refers violations to the Attorney General and the local prosecuting attorney, who may sue in the county where the offense occurred. Docking in a city or county that never held, or that rejected, a local approval election is likewise unlicensed operation, exposing the boat's license to revocation.