Sports wagering has experienced an appropriate bloom in the Sunflower State.
Kansas, which raced by neighboring Missouri with a passage-to-launch sprint taking just three-plus months in 2022, put the cap on its first year of legal betting earlier this week when the Kansas Lottery released its figures for August. The 12-month totals are somewhat impressive considering there were four retail books and six mobile ones, with operators accepting $1.85 billion worth of wagers and generating $166.4 million in gross revenue to produce a hold of 9%.
The state collected close to $7 million in tax revenue, as operators are allowed to deduct promotional play and carry over monthly losses in arriving at adjusted gross revenue. The $60 million in AGR is only 36% of the gross revenue, impacted by aggressive introductory offers from mobile operators during the September launch and again in February for Super Bowl LVII.
That total also includes seven-figure overall AGR losses in both of those months, with the heavy wagering on the Kansas City Chiefs as they rallied to top the Philadelphia Eagles in February contributing to Kansas being just one of three states to post a monthly loss in gross revenue thus far in 2023.