Kansas may be the beating heart of Chiefs Kingdom, but if Patrick Mahomes, Travis Kelce and Taylor Swift have a good day this Super Bowl Sunday, the state will come out on the losing end of sports betting.
That little bit of weirdness is brought to you by the Kansas Constitution and the state Legislature.
In most states that allow sports betting, casinos and their sportsbooks are owned by the private sector and the state simply taxes them.
In Kansas, well, it’s complicated.
Technically, the state government owns and operates the casinos that contract with the sportsbooks and state coffers get a share of the profit — so when the house wins, we win with them.
Conversely, when the house loses, we do too.
And when it’s the Kansas City Chiefs in the Super Bowl — the most popular betting event of the year — there’s a high risk that the state will take a bad beat. Like last year, when the Chiefs edged the Philadelphia Eagles 38-35 to take the NFL championship.
According to the gambling trade journal legalsportsreport.com , Kansans bet $25 million on the Super Bowl last year. A whopping 80% of that was on just two bets: the Chiefs to win and that Mahomes would be named the game’s most valuable player.