Missouri Moves Closer to Sports Betting as Chiefs Head to Super Bowl

Missouri remain unable to legally place bets within the state.

Although Missouri residents voted to legalize sports gambling in November, making it the 39th state to do so, bettors must still travel across state lines to Kansas or other neighboring states to place wagers. The Missouri Gaming Commission is actively working to implement regulations, with plans to launch sports betting by mid-2025.

Chiefs Fans Await Legal Betting in Missouri

With Super Bowl LIX scheduled for Feb. 9 in New Orleans, fans in Kansas City find themselves unable to legally bet on the game without leaving Missouri. The lack of immediate access to sports wagering has left some frustrated.

Brandon Stanford, a fan who frequents Johnny’s Tavern in the Power & Light District, expressed his disappointment: “The Super Bowl is freaking a couple weeks away. We’ll be at the Super Bowl, but we’ve got to go somewhere else to bet it, so it’s not as fun. It’s killing some of our enthusiasm.”

Kansas, where sports betting has been legal since September 2022, remains an option for Missouri residents willing to make the trip. However, not all fans are eager to cross the border.

“I don’t want to go to Kansas to do it,”said Kenneth Love, another patron at Johnny’s Tavern. “I’m from Missouri. I like to stay over here.”

Stanford echoed the sentiment, saying, “We’re getting tired of having to drive across the water.”

Missouri’s Timeline for Sports Betting

Missouri Gaming Commission Chair Jan Zimmerman reaffirmed that the state remains on course to issue licenses by June, aligning with the timeline announced after voters approved the initiative.

A key step in the process occurred recently when the commission submitted a draft of its regulations to Governor Mike Kehoe’s office for review.

“Part of our timeline that has been created by the staff, that was discussed with the Commission at our last meeting, was to get those preliminary rules to the governor’s office,” Zimmerman said. “We’ve met that date, on the 27th (Monday, Jan. 27), those rules went to the governor’s office.”

Despite some eagerness among residents to start betting immediately, the commission has until Dec. 1, 2025, to fully implement sports wagering. Zimmerman acknowledged the ambitious nature of their timeline.

“We got a gasp from the staff when we said we wanted to be (live by) mid- to late summer, because it is so involved,” she said. “That whole application process is really intensive and really takes a lot of work by the background investigators. It takes a lot of work by the people who are trying to be licensed, because they have to get us all this paperwork about their financial backgrounds and all that. We knew that even June was going to be really aggressive. The staff, they’ve been working nights and weekends and holidays to try and make sure that we can get it out there.”

Under the new law, all 13 brick-and-mortar casinos operating in Missouri will have the opportunity to apply for licenses to offer both retail and online sports betting, including mobile wagering apps.

Additionally, designated sports gambling districts will be established around Missouri’s six professional sports teams’ home stadiums. These include the Chiefs, Royals, and Current in Kansas City, as well as the Blues, Cardinals, and St. Louis City SC in St. Louis.

The amendment also allows for two additional sports betting licenses not tied to casinos. While major operators like FanDuel and DraftKings may apply, Zimmerman emphasized that licenses will not be automatically awarded to them.

“It’s not just FanDuel and DraftKings,” she stated. “We’re going to have a process, a selection process, to determine those, whether it’s a point system or something like that. The untethered licenses, obviously, are an important component. But we didn’t have any control over the number, because that’s what’s in the initiative.”

Future Adjustments Could Be Difficult

Since Missouri legalized sports gambling through an initiative petition and constitutional amendment, making future changes to the law—such as adjusting the 10% tax rate or lifting restrictions on in-state college player prop bets—would require another statewide vote.

For now, Missouri bettors must wait until mid-2025 for sports wagering to officially launch. That means Chiefs fans will endure at least one more Super Bowl where they can bet from the comfort of home in Kansas—but not in Missouri.

“I’m just a little jealous,” Stanford itted, “but we’ve got stuff over here that they can’t do, so it’s all good.”

Source:

”Missouri regulator delivers draft rules for online, retail sports gambling”, cdcgaming.com, February 02, 2025.