KANSAS CITY, Mo. – Kansas City Chiefs fans based in Missouri dreaming of betting on Super Bowl LIX will continue to wait.
Voters approved legal sports betting during November’s election, but that doesn’t mean it happens automatically.
Missouri gaming officials hope to authorize two mobile gambling platforms by late summer. In the meantime, sports betting remains legal in Kansas, where it was green-lit in 2022.
Gaming officials are making progress, and they’re currently ironing out details, so for the time being, Missouri gamblers hop across State Line Road and other avenues that serve as dividing lines.
Khalil Booshehri and other restaurant staffers at The Peanut location at 130th and State Line Road are accustomed to seeing patrons leave the restaurant, and trot across the road to place their bets in Kansas. For now, geofencing makes it impossible to do so in Missouri.
“You’re comfortable, and you have to leave, and you have to come back. It’s just a wrench in their visit,” Booshehri said on Tuesday. “Until they give it the green light, they just have to keep doing what they’re doing, but if I were the governor of Missouri, I’d say let’s go now.”
It isn’t that simple, according to the Missouri Gaming Commission. Leaders there hope to activate legal wagering for Missouri bettors as soon as late June, but they have until December, according to new regulations approved by voters in November.
Jan Zimmerman, who chairs MGC, said state leaders are now in an application process, where background checks are being conducted, and casinos and other parties applying for licenses are shown to be legally permitted.
“It’s not a quick process, not only for sports betting, but for any license process we do with casinos or other individuals. It just takes a while to get it done,” Zimmerman said.
All of the states that border Missouri have legalized sports wagering. Zimmerman said Missouri leaders have spent time learning from those governing bodies.
On Tuesday, FOX4 reached out to four major sports wagering platforms – DraftKings, Bet MGM, FanDuel and ESPN Bet – but none of them could tell us how many Missouri sports gamblers are betting in Kansas.
Zimmerman said one of the considerations being made is which sports gambling platforms will be approved for use in Missouri. She said MGC will give the green light to only two of them, but it’s yet to be determined which ones.