The 13 commercial casinos in Missouri combined for about $156.9 million in revenue for February, a slight uptick from January and a figure that kept the Show Me State on pace for a record year.
The exact statewide figure for February was $156,916,652, a 2.1% increase from the January Missouri casino revenue report.
The casinos combined to contribute $29,657,247 in gaming proceeds for education last month.
In the meantime, March could be a crucial month for the state in its effort to get Missouri sports betting adopted into law.
Missouri Casino Analysis For February
As usual, the Ameristar St. Charles Casino in St. Louis led Missouri casinos in revenue for February, pulling in $25.4 million. That total came from $19.7 million in slot machines, $11.95 million at table games and $159,000 in hybrid games, an option unique to Ameristar.
The only other facility in the state to clear $20 million in revenue for the month was River City Casino in Lemay, also in the St. Louis market. River City reported about $20.89 million, according to the Missouri Gaming Commission. The St. Louis market’s four casinos combined for $78.2 million in February.
The four casinos in the Kansas City market brought in more than $53.8 million for the month, led by Ameristar Kansas City, on the northern banks of the Missouri River. Ameristar reported $15.86 million in February revenue, followed by Argosy Casino at almost $14 million.
Missouri’s five “out-state” casinos (between the St. Louis and Kansas City clusters) combined for nearly $25 million last month, topped by Isle of Capri Casino in Boonville with $7.65 million.
Statewide, nearly $135 million in revenue came from slots and almost $21.8 million from table games.
For the fiscal year (starting July 1, 2022) Missouri has collected about $1.26 billion in casino revenue, 1.6% higher than the amount through eight months in the previous fiscal year. In the 2021-22 fiscal year, Missouri reset the state record with $1.9 billion in revenue.
Missouri Sports Betting Awaits
Missouri offers two Major League Baseball teams, one National Football League team, one National Hockey League team and a new Major League Soccer expansion team in St. Louis (plus an original MLS team in Kansas City, Kansas, just over the border from Missouri). Add in six Division I college basketball programs — including Missouri, which is a member of the powerhouse SEC for football and other sports — and there’s a great deal of sports interest in the state.
So it’s no surprise the state’s pro sports teams lent their support to a sports betting proposal in the state legislature.
Previous efforts to bring legal, regulated sports betting to the state have failed, but the urgency has increased as more states have adopted the practice.
Neighboring Kansas became one of the most recent states to adopt sports betting, launching online and retail sportsbooks in September 2022.
The latest proposed Missouri sports betting bill is Senate Bill 30, which would bring mobile sports betting to the state. Casinos would also be allowed to take wagers on sports from customers arriving in person — this is called retail betting. SB 30 is currently awaiting the next step, with the legislature on break until March 15,
The mobile aspect of any sports betting proposal is critical, for the same reason that Amazon has become a megacorporation in the past couple of decades — getting goods and services from home has become by far the preferred way to go for most consumers.
Betting on sports has been no different since the U.S. Supreme Court struck down PASPA in 2018, leaving states to decide for themselves if they wish to legalize sports betting. More than 30 states (plus Washington D.C.) have done so, and most of those states offer an online betting option.
In states that have both retail and online sportsbooks, the norm has been for at least 90% of the wagers to be placed on mobile, desktop or laptop devices. So if Missouri does get legal sports betting across the finish line, expect major national operators to jump in and entities such as BetMGM Missouri Sportsbook, DraftKings, FanDuel, Caesars and PointsBet to spring up.
Until then, stay tuned to BetMissouri for the latest news.
