KANSAS CITY, Mo. — A spokesperson for the campaign to get sports wagering on the ballot in Missouri said on Tuesday that they have passed a significant threshold.

The “Winning for Missouri Education” shared they’ve collected 300-thousand signatures about a month out from their deadline to file with the state.

This push came together through the efforts of Missouri’s six pro-sports franchises including the Kansas City Royals and the Chiefs.

And after years of gridlock in the legislature, this issue looks to be headed to the November ballot. Signatures will still need to be verified and the campaign is aiming to collect nearly double the amount of required signatures.

Jack Cardetti, spokesperson Winning For Missouri Education, frames the sports betting issue as one that will provide connected-revenue to Missouri schools.

“Thousands of Missourians are participating in sports betting right now. They’re either doing so by going on an illegal offshore account. Or they’re travelling a block or two into our neighboring states, making bets, helping their economy, and then coming back to the show me state,” Cardetti said.

The highest profile pushback at the state-level often came from Warrensburg Senator Denny Hoskins, consistently linking sports betting to video lottery terminals.

With less control over the issue, his latest concerns focus more on funding to combat compulsive gambling.

“I think in the provisions that I’ve seen – whether its been the sports teams or the bills that have been filed in the house or the senate. They only call for $5 million and $5 million is not enough,” Hoskins said during a news conference on sports betting leading up to the 2024 Super Bowl.

Other lawmakers, however, have expressed it’s long overdue.

“Everybody else around the country’s doing something that we can’t do because a few folks want slot machines in gas stations. That is where we are. I mean, it’s a simplified view of things but it is what it is,” Sen. Caleb Rowden, (R) Columbia, said, also in February.

The campaign aimed to collect about 325,000 signatures but organizers said they may overshoot that amount during these next three weeks.