With the NFL 2022 season about to start, Kansas comes just in time to the legal sports betting party joining the other over 30 states that allow their residents to gamble on pro and college sports, a right these states gained once the US Supreme Court overturned PASPA in 2018.
It only took Kansas four-plus years to go through the tricky process of legalizing, regulating, launching, and now taxing a sports betting market designed to make it easier and safer for gambling Kansans to wager on sports both in person and online using mobile apps.
Never mind the millions (and often billions) of dollars at stake here in this growing American market, according to Kevin Hennessy, FanDuel sportsbook spokesperson, the new Kansas sports betting market will give resident bettors an easy way to make games more exciting:
It’s a very communal attraction. You’re not sitting at home on your phone alone. You’re interacting with friends via text chains or sitting at a bar.
Not only that, these new sportsbook apps turn amateur gamblers into virtual pros by giving them access to player and team statistics, pro analysis, and commentary that gives inside looks that could give newer gamblers an edge, as Kansas Governor Laura Kelly found out last week.
First Legal Wager in Kansas Placed by Governor Laura Kelly in Kansas City
To celebrate her state’s legal sports betting launch, Governor Laura Kelly made the trip to Hollywood Casino in Kansas City, Kansas to be the first one to place a legal wager there, a ceremonial ‘first pitch’ that will hopefully encourage others to jump in and do the same.
According to a statement from her office, Gov. Kelly bet $15 on the Kansas City Chiefs winning Super Bowl LVII, a wager amount that matches the number on Patrick Mahomes’ jersey, no accident as many Kansans route for the Chiefs when they watch the NFL.
This new legal market in Kansa creates an income stream that has already been earmarked for a special purpose, the goal being to siphon bodies and sports teams from state neighbors.
Kansas Hopes to Also Attract Missouri Gamblers and Sports Teams
From the start of their journey to legalize sports betting for residents, Kansas lawmakers had one main goal in mind: to bring more action to their state, and therefore money, the hope being that a legal market will attract gamblers who can’t get legal and safe action elsewhere.
For those Americans who live anywhere near the Kansas border, you will still have to drive into the state if you would like to place legal bets since the sports betting apps that work there are ‘geofenced,’ meaning they shut down any action that does not happen inside the Wheat State.
The other action Kansas lawmakers hope to inspire with this new legal betting market is aimed at the NFL’s KC Chiefs, who currently make their home in Missouri but who could be thinking about a new stadium deal sometime soon, and Gov. Kelly wants them to look in Kansas for that.
The Chiefs’ lease on its current home, Arrowhead Stadium, doesn’t expire until 2031, but with Kansas now allowing legal sports betting and Missouri still on the fence, the Sunflower State now has a generous head start in courting that pro football franchise and others.
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