Kansas Step Closer to Sports Betting, Regulations Approved

The Kansas Racing and Gaming Commission has done its job way ahead of its 2023 deadline and launching an operation in time for official NFL season matches is seeming less and less like optimistic or wishful thinking, and is now a narrowly attainable goal.

Regulation Passed for Final Approval

The Kansas Racing and Gaming Commission (KRGC) held a meeting on Friday and a key focus in its timetable was sports betting regulation, which passed unanimously. According to the KRGC agenda for the meeting, some key regulatory definitions now have specific clarifications, such as defining voluntarily and involuntarily excluded persons, layoff, voided and canceled wagers, and more, along with some more standard language definitions.

All of this is part of the creation of all regulations and the next step in Kansas’ road to sports betting in the state goes through Kansas Attorney General (AG) Derek Schmidt, who needs to ink the final approval of the regulations. The next KRGC meeting will be on September 9, 2022, at 10:00 am in Topeka, KS 66604, at the Shawnee County Public Library on 1515 SW 10th Ave.

Long Story Coming Close to Its End

Technically, sports betting has been legal in Kansas since July 1, 2022, after Gov. Laura Kelly officially signed the sports betting bill (Senate Bill 84) on May 12, with a ceremonial signing taking place on June 20. Now, the bill is very extensive and the original deadline for regulators to play their role was January 1, 2023. Even back in May, there was optimism that sports betting might be becoming a reality before the year’s end. Later on, there was talk that it could all be done in time for football season, with the NFL season being an extremely good time for the launch. Local casinos are enabled to make deals with sports venues and franchises, as well as install kiosks at their facilities. Additionally, local casinos will be able to engage with up to three iGaming operators for mobile businesses.

And, some of the sports betting operators are getting ready for Kansas’ to dabble in the industry. FanDuel has already started its pre-launch offers, and DraftKings has also unveiled its own welcome promotions for first arrivals from the Sunflower State. DraftKings pre-register users will be afforded four $25-worth of free bets, for a total of $100 – no deposit necessary. Furthermore, a lucky Kansan will be randomly drawn on launch day for a prize of $100,000 free bet.

The state will be receiving 10% in taxes from all revenue generated by sports betting activities. Sportradar’s Head of Government Affairs and former Michigan State Representative Brandt Iden were reported commenting that the projected $10 million revenue was relatively low, saying that “it’ll be a lot bigger” without providing a more specific projection of his own. This might seem overly optimistic to some, but legalizing and launching sports betting operations in the state might turn into an entry point for out-of-state investors and bettors as well, with Michiganders being a prime candidate for this and Mr. Iden probably knows this.