Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly’s gambling choice could cost the state money if the Kansas City Chiefs win the Super Bowl. But don’t worry – the rates are low.

Sports bookmakers like the state make money on losing bets. They try to set the odds in such a way that the amount of the bet to win or against the team (or the total number of points, or even a coin toss) is approximately equal. This is harder to do in a big game with a local team.

Players in Kansas who put their money into their hearts are counting on the Chiefs to win. If they are correct, the game could be one of those rare instances where the casinos and the government actually pay out more winnings than the losing bets they earn from new legal Sports Betting.

But legal sports gambling in Kansas generates so little revenue for the state that Kansas residents can cheer for Kansas City’s victory on Sunday and watch Kelly and many other Chiefs fans cash in on the local team’s victory.

During her state opening legal sports gambling in septemberKelly made a $15 bet to win $150 of what could have been state money if the hometown team went all the way to the NFL championship.

Many Kansasians are making the same bets ahead of the biggest sports gambling day of the year. Cory Ton, a spokesman for the Kansas Lottery, said the state doesn’t have an estimate of how much money will be wagered in Kansas for the big game this year, but it will likely be in the millions or even tens of millions.

“We can’t wait to see what it looks like,” Ton said, “because we’re doing sports betting in the state for the first time during the Super Bowl. And don’t you know that the Chiefs are there.

However, the vast majority of the money generated from sports gambling in Kansas goes to private companies that operate state-sponsored casinos. On the other hand, the state receives only 10% of the profits from sports betting. If one of the casinos takes $1 million from losing bets, the state only gets $100,000.

Thus, Kelly, who placed a bet wearing a jacket with the logo of one of these private companies, could see a payout of 10 times more than she wagered. The state, on the contrary, will receive only one-tenth of what the casino wins on the same betting event. And given the lopsided local betting on the Chiefs, a Kansas City victory could actually make the casino — and the entire state — a rare loser.

The state’s share is also less than half of what it receives from traditional gambling such as slot machines and blackjack. Casinos distribute more than 27% of this revenue. But Tone said that more of the operating costs are for sports betting, which offers the additional option of betting online.

Regardless, these funds are nothing more than a rounding error in the state budget. Officials estimate that sports gambling will bring in up to $10 million a year. That’s barely 0.1% of the state’s total $9.5 billion budget.

Daniel Wallach, a Florida-based sports betting attorney, said the income Kansas receives from its operations is in line with most other states that allow sports betting. According to him, the average figure is from 10 to 15%.

“So they are on the lower side of the average,” Wallach said.

The American Gaming Association estimates that Super Bowl bets will be worth $16 billion at the national level. The income generated from this number will be much less. In 2022, Kansas casinos controlled $718 million worth of sports betting. It only brought taxpayers $2 million..

Other factors could lead to a jump in the rates made in Kansas. Some neighboring states still do not have legal sports betting, including chiefs’ home in Missouri. The Missouri Independent reports that more than 220,000 people in Missouri attempted to place 8.7 million bets during the NFL season.

Wallach said that in Kansas, it is likely that many Missourians and Oklahomaans will cross the border to gamble.

But how much the state will win from the Super Bowl will also depend on the results of the game. Tone said that 80% of Super Bowl betting in Kansas is on the local team. This is a huge amount of betting on the one hand, and this leads the casinos to adjust the lines and odds to minimize their risk.

However, Wallach said a Chiefs victory could mean the casinos suffer and the state gets nothing. Something similar happened a few years ago in Rhode Island when the New England Patriots were in a big game. An exorbitant amount of money was raffled off in a state lottery for a local team that ultimately won.

“The lottery lost money in the Super Bowl,” Wallach said. “Maybe the Kansas Lottery will root for the Philadelphia Eagles.”

Dylan Lysen reports on politics for the Kansas News Service. You can follow him on Twitter @DylanLysen or email him at dlysen (at) kcur (dot) org.

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