On Sundays, Spencer Murry has been driving across the border into Kansas to place bets on sports.
Murry, a Kansas City resident, said he’s always loved watching sports. When he learned about sports betting via social media, he started placing bets on the Chiefs.
“I’ll go on Sunday mornings, so probably once a week, maybe twice if there’s something fun,” Murry said. “Or if I’m over there — running errands in Overland Park or visiting family in Prairie Village — I’ll put it in.”
Most of the time, Murry has kept it simple and found a parking lot to place his bets — and he wasn’t alone. Murry said he’s often seen other people parked and on their phones on the Kansas side of the border.
“On Sunday mornings, there’s usually a few cars that you can tell (are placing bets),” he said. “Or if you’re just driving, you’ll see cars parked on the side of the road that are probably doing that.”
But when he gets a group of friends together, they’ve gone to a bar on the Kansas side of State Line Road to bet as they watch the game.
Murry and his friends are among thousands of Missourians who cross the border into Kansas, Illinois and other states to bet on sports. Of the eight states that border Missouri, only one — Oklahoma — has not legalized sports betting in some form.
Between Sept. 5 and Oct. 21, 2024, GeoComply — a software company that checks sportsbook users’ locations to determine whether they can place a bet — identified more than 216,000 mobile sports betting accounts in Missouri.
During that time, more than 3,700 Missourians traveled to Kansas and more than 2,800 traveled to Illinois to bet on sports, according to data from GeoComply.
The phenomenon is similar to cross-border shopping, according to Adam Hoffer, the director of excise tax policy at the center-right Tax Foundation.
“In Missouri’s case, just based on where the state population is, you’re definitely going to see an impact on neighboring states,” Hoffer said.
In November 2024, Missourians legalized sports betting, and on Dec. 1, 2025, sportsbooks went live within Missouri’s borders for the first time. Murry, who spoke with The Beacon a few days before sportsbooks launched, said he’s excited about the change.
“It was time for it to happen,” he said. “I think, no matter what your opinion is on it, people are going to other states — people are going to do it regardless.”
He said he appreciated the greater accessibility of not having to travel to place bets. While he thinks he’ll bet “more or less” the same amount, he is looking forward to live betting, which he said wasn’t as much of an option before.
As Missouri bettors stay in their homes and neighborhoods to place bets, other states will feel the impact of lost revenue, Hoffer said.
Missouri expects to collect about $28 million in tax revenue from sports betting annually. Although the state stands to collect revenue that would otherwise go to neighboring states, Missouri is late to legalizing sports betting, which means it won’t attract as much cross-border betting from its neighbors.
However, as the Midwest embraces sports betting, some states’ sports betting tax policies could drive bettors into neighboring states, Hoffer said.
“I don’t think Missouri is going to be a huge winner (in terms of) an influx of cross-border bettors. Where they might see it most is actually from Illinois, because Illinois just placed a per-wager tax,” he said. “What we expect to see as a result in Illinois are fewer, smaller bets.”
Illinois “bettors can, if they’re near a border with Missouri … dodge that tax by betting across the border. So I do think (Missouri) will see some net influx from people living in neighboring states,” he added. “I don’t think it’s going to be enormous, but I do think there will certainly be some bettors looking to avoid the higher taxes in neighboring states.”
An advantage of being a later adopter is that Missouri could evaluate other states’ sports betting tax policies to see what works best, Hoffer said.
“I think that’s quite helpful in this case,” he said. “If I were to design a (sports betting) tax structure from scratch, I’d pick the way Missouri designed it. Their rate of 10% is going to put them close to the median rate.”
Sports betting taxes aren’t competitive in the same way as taxes on cigarettes or gasoline, “where prices — and, in part, taxes — are advertised on billboards on the side of the highway so consumers know where to shop for the best rates,” Hoffer said.
Still, higher taxes could mean sportsbooks have to worsen the odds for their customers in order to ensure they make a profit. As a result, worse odds could push bettors to nearby states with lower taxes and better odds, he said.
“Sports bettors, like a lot of other cross-border shoppers we see across the country, will know where they can get the best odds for their wagers and will bet accordingly,” Hoffer said.
