With sports betting before voters, Missouri gets new gambling regulator
ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH https://www.stltoday.com/
By Kurt Erickson September 9, 2024
JEFFERSON CITY — A former state lawmaker from south St. Louis County is poised to become the state’s top gambling regulator.
With a possible expansion of gambling on the horizon, the Missouri Gaming Commission named Mike Leara as its ninth executive director Friday.
He will take over for Peggy Richardson, a former Moniteau County judge who announced in April that she was retiring.
The move is a return to the commission for Leara, who served on the four-member gaming board beginning in 2019.
The gaming position pays $130,000, up from the roughly $100,000 Leara was earning as the state supervisor for the Department of Public Safety’s Division of Alcohol and Tobacco Control.
At the alcohol and tobacco control post, Leara recently headed up efforts by Gov. Mike Parson to crack down on the sale of unregulated psychoactive cannabis products at establishments with liquor licenses.
Those rules are the subject of a lawsuit filed last month by the Missouri Hemp Trade Association.
As chairman of the gaming board, Leara helped navigate the casino industry through a costly COVID-19 shutdown and the spread of unregulated and untaxed slot machines in gas stations, bars and restaurants.
The next director could face the prospect of an expansion of the office pending the outcome of two proposed initiative petitions that are on the November ballot.
One would bring sports betting to Missouri, putting the gaming commission in charge of launching the program.
According to a fiscal analysis of the proposal, a sports gambling system in Missouri would require the hiring of an estimated 15 additional employees to regulate and enforce the program at a cost of about $3.9 million.
Leara said preparations to implement the sports betting program will be “critical.”
“That’s going to be my biggest challenge right away,” Leara told the Post-Dispatch.
The other ballot question would add a casino to the state’s current fleet of 13. The proposed casino would be located at the Lake of the Ozarks.
If the new casino is approved by voters, a fiscal analysis shows the need to hire at least one dozen additional employees to regulate and enforce state gambling laws at a cost estimated to be $2.6 million.
Leara, who lives in unincorporated Sappington, served as a state representative for the 96th House District from 2009 through 2017 and has kept his hand in electoral politics by serving as treasurer of a political action committee that raises money for former Rep. David Gregory, a Chesterfield Republican who is running for a seat in the state Senate.
During his time the Legislature, Leara served as vice chairman on the Missouri State Employee Retirement System board of trustees.
He has also owned and operated Gateway Advisors in St. Louis since 1999. The firm is a corporate and governmental retirement and pension plan consultant.
Leara is expected to start the job in October.
