Kansas offers lessons for Missouri voters ahead of sports-wagering amendment vote

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Sports wagering remains illegal in Missouri, but that could change on Nov. 5 with Amendment 2 on the ballot — and online sports gambling sites have aligned against brick-and-mortar casinos in a multi-million campaign to persuade voters.

If passed, Amendment 2 would require Missouri to launch online and in-person sports gambling, including at professional sports districts, by Dec. 1, 2025.

The pro-Amendment 2 crowd, funded by sports-betting apps like FanDuel and DraftKings, is selling Amendment 2 as an education-funding bill.

“Missouri education will receive about $105 million over the next five years, if Amendment 2 passes,” Winning for Missouri spokesperson Jack Cardetti said. “That’s something we think is very valuable. As we sit here today, Missouri teachers are 47th in the nation when it comes to average teacher pay, so certainly that investment into our public schools is going to be welcome.”

Ironically, it’s casinos — primarily Caesars Entertainment — that are funding the opposition to Amendment 2.

“We’re not opposed to sports gambling, but what we’re opposed to is the way that this measure is written and now, subsequently, the way that it’s being advertised,” Missourians Against the Deceptive Online Gambling Amendment spokesperson Brooke Foster said. “We’re trying to educate Missourians about the fact that there’s a lot of promises being made to schools that just aren’t going to come true.”

It’s undeniably true that a 10% tax on sports-gambling revenue won’t miraculously fund Missouri schools, but Rob Olson, a state senator from Olathe who led the Kansas legislature’s effort to legalize sports gambling three years ago, doesn’t believe it has to.

“I think this will be a win for Missouri,” Olson said.

Seven of the eight states that border Missouri already are among 38 states that have legalized sports gambling. Illegal off-shore gambling sites also have existed for decades.

Missouri residents are gambling on sports, whether by hopping across the nearest state line to place a wager or online, so the question is whether the state will benefit from that activity or not.

More than $4.37 billion has been wagered in Kansas since September 2022, when the Sunflower State rolled out its casino-backed program.

“I think it’s working great,” Olson said. “We always knew this wasn’t going to be the big pot of gold. It wasn’t going to be $100 million. But every dollar you leave that’s out there, you’re not going to get that back. Missouri, waiting three or four years, they’ve missed a lot of money, the ramp-up money. They’ll never be able to get that back.”

The reality is that top-end revenue projections for sports-gambling in Missouri — $28.9 million, according to an Eilers & Krejcik Gaming LLC study commissioned by Winning for Missouri Education — would fund a less-than-$360 raise for each of Missouri’s roughly 66,445 teachers after accounting for other fees and carve-outs.

But it’s also true that Missouri can’t do anything with the money if sports wagering isn’t legalized, regulated and taxed.

Kansas collected more than $6.57 million in tax revenue in the first 12 months after sports gambling became a reality. That figure grew to more than $11.68 million during the second 12 months and September 2024 produced the second-largest tax-revenue haul ($1.83 million) in state history.

All told, Kansas has raised more than $20 million in tax revenue during the first 25 months.

But there are several reasons to believe Missouri could benefit more.

For starters, the Show-Me State has roughly twice the population and Amendment 2 caps deductions that sportsbooks can’t take for promotional and free credits at 25%. There is no such cap for deductions in Kansas.

Missouri also directs a lot more money — $5 million annually — into a Compulsive Gambling Fund before a dime goes to schools. There’s also no guarantee that the state legislature won’t redirect money currently going to schools once sports-wagering revenue kicks in, similar to the shell game that took place with lottery funding.

“Education is the very last stop — even then, it’s not guaranteed to go to education, because there’s not any sort of mechanism in place that would keep it from just being supplanted by money from the general fund,” Foster said. “In general, we just think that kiddos and teachers are kind of being used as a gimmick for their measure.”

Amendment 2 also forbids prop bets for players at colleges and universities in Missouri.

During the last quarter, DraftKings ownership pumped another $8.525 million into the Winning for Missouri Education committee, which received $6.5 million from FanDuel’s parent company.

The committee has raised more than $21.5 million since its inception. Meanwhile, Caesars Entertainment and three of its casinos — Tropicana St. Louis LLC, Harrah’s North Kansas City LLC and Isle of Capri Boonville Inc. — contributed nearly $4.2 million to the Missourians Against the Deceptive Online Gambling Amendment in mid-September.

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