Kansas lawmakers have reopened the sports betting discussion with two new sports betting bills.
January 27th saw Senate Bill 84 introduced followed by House Bill 2199 on February 2nd. Both bills propose that the state lottery is expanded to oversee sports betting in Kansas.
This isn’t the first time that sports betting has been up for discussion in Kansas. The most recent effort to establish legislation for a regulated industry saw a sports betting bill passed by the Senate in February of 2020. However, the coronavirus pandemic those efforts on the backburner.
While last year’s bills proposed tax rates of 7.5% for in-person wagers and 10% for online wagers, the new bills have set those rates at 14% for retail and 20% for online. The new tax rates should make the bills more palatable for the house and significantly increase projected tax revenues.
Aside from the new tax rates, the only other major difference between this year’s bills and their 2020 counterparts is that existing lottery operators will be allowed three sports betting skins as opposed to the two approved last year.
With four casinos in the state, this would mean a total of 12 sports betting skins for Kansas.
PointsBet, FanDuel, and Barstool Sportsbook look the most likely brands to enter the market due to their current partnerships and relationships with the state’s existing casino operators. That leaves 9 skins open for partnerships which is enough to see the majority of the USA’s largest sports betting providers enter the market.
The bills would also allow the state’s Native American tribes renegotiate their gaming compacts to include sports betting in some form.
Based in London, Natasha is a former sports journalist with experience working for some of the biggest athletes & brands in the world of sports and iGaming.