It appears the Missouri Legislature will adjourn next month without approving a sports-betting package that would significantly enhance state gambling tax revenue, as most other states do. Its failure comes not because the idea lacks support in Jefferson City but because a related component of the proposal is to finally settle the issue of the unlicensed, untaxed video gaming machines that operate with impunity all over the state — and that well-heeled industry apparently has enough lawmakers in its pocket to prevent such regulation from happening. Thus, Missouri’s taxpayers are now being doubly ripped off by illegal gambling operations and the legislators who protect them.