Supreme Court PASPA Overturn Kickstarts Kansas Sports Betting Legislation

While Kansas has several casinos across the state, the state government itself has been slow to move on the sports betting industry that’s going to take the country by storm. However, though many states pre-empted the elimination of the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act of 1992 (PASPA) by passing their own sports wagering legalization measures, only the Supreme Court PASPA overturn has kickstarted Kansas sports betting legislation into the realm of meaningful debate. However, the initiative is still having trouble getting off the ground.

First, HB 2533 was introduced to the house in January 2018. This bill was tentatively called the “Kansas Expanded Lottery Act,” and it suggested that sports gaming would be operated exclusively by racetrack gaming facilities.

Next came HB 2752 in February, which concerned the creation of the Kansas Sports Wagering Act. This bill spread the potential purview of sports betting from the sole custody of racetracks to other gambling destinations and outposts in the state.

The third bill that the Kansas congress presented – in March – was a revision of HB 2752, also calling for the creation of the Kansas Sports Wagering Act. Called HB 2792, this bill was nothing more than a medium-grade edit of the previous piece of legislation.

Also introduced in March, HB 2793 took a slightly different tack than the previous two bills, pushing sports wagering back to square one under the exclusive umbrella of the Kansas Expanded Lottery Act. (Giving their existing lottery commissions authority over sports betting is a common course of action taken by many states in the immediate aftermath of PASPA’s overturn.)

The most recent bill was also introduced in March 2018, where the Senate finally made its first sports betting offering, SB 455. This was an effort to create the Kansas Sports Wagering Act (mirroring HB 2752 and HB 2792), introducing the concept to the higher chamber without adding or removing any key provisions.

Unfortunately, all of these bills died in committee on Friday, May 4, 2018. What Kansas intends to do going forward remains to be seen, but there is no chance that the billions of dollars in annual economic impact that legalized Kansas sports betting would bring to the state will go unaccounted for or ignored at the legislative level. That said, the Kansas house and the Kansas senate are adjourned until January 14, 2019, so sports betting will not be in place in the state until spring of next year at the earliest (barring an emergency session, which seems unlikely for a topic such as sports betting, especially with the midterm elections coming up).

Still, if you live in Kansas, you can continue to bet on sports in the meantime using an offshore sportsbook like Bovada, BetOnline, SportsBetting, and other top Internet betting shops. Even though these sites are now in direct competition with various US states ramping up to offer sports betting (including, eventually, Kansas), they are still 100% legal and safe to use.

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