Missouri Sports Betting: Legal MO Sportsbooks, Apps & Bonuses

Yes. Sports betting is legal in Missouri and has been live since Dec. 1, 2025. The activity was authorized by Amendment 2, a constitutional amendment that Missouri voters approved Nov. 5, 2024, by one of the narrowest margins in the country. The Missouri Gaming Commission regulates the market, licensing operators and enforcing the rules for both online and retail betting.

To bet legally in Missouri, you must be at least 21 years old and physically present within state lines. Residency is not required, so visitors can bet as long as they are inside Missouri when they place the wager. Geolocation technology verifies a bettor’s location and blocks any attempt to bet from outside the state, which matters near the Kansas City and St. Louis borders, where a phone can cross a state line in minutes. Both mobile apps and in-person casino sportsbooks are permitted.

Are Offshore Sportsbooks Legal in Missouri?

No. Offshore sportsbooks are not legal, not licensed and not regulated by the Missouri Gaming Commission or any United States authority. They operate from foreign jurisdictions such as Panama, Costa Rica and Curacao, outside the reach of Missouri law. While federal enforcement targets operators rather than individual bettors, these sites exist in a legal gray area and do not carry the consumer protections of a state-licensed Missouri sportsbook. Major Missouri-focused outlets and the Missouri Gaming Commission consistently warn bettors against them.

Risks of Using Offshore Sportsbooks

Betting at an unregulated offshore site carries real risks that bettors do not face at licensed Missouri operators. There is no state consumer protection or dispute resolution, so if a site refuses to pay or freezes your funds, Missouri regulators cannot help you. There are no guaranteed payouts, with withdrawal limits, delays and account reviews common and no regulatory backstop. The state’s responsible-gambling and self-exclusion tools do not apply, age and identity safeguards are weaker, and your banking and personal data carry added risk. Offshore books also issue no tax forms, leaving bettors to report winnings on their own.

Because Missouri now offers eight licensed online sportsbooks with full consumer protections, bettors are strongly encouraged to use the regulated options. The offshore books below are listed for transparency, not as a recommendation.

Caesars Sportsbook at Horseshoe St. Louis

Horseshoe St. Louis hosts a full Caesars Sportsbook retail location at 999 N. 2nd St. in downtown St. Louis. As one of the larger casino properties in the area, it offers staffed windows and kiosks, and bettors earn Caesars Rewards credits on their wagers. It is a strong choice for bettors who want a brand-name book with loyalty perks usable across Caesars resorts.

Caesars Sportsbook at Harrah’s Kansas City

Harrah’s Kansas City, at 1 Riverboat Drive in North Kansas City, is Caesars’ retail home on the western side of the state. It gives Kansas City-area bettors a licensed in-person option with the same Caesars Rewards integration found in St. Louis, plus betting windows, kiosks and a casino-floor atmosphere built for game-day crowds.

Fanatics Sportsbook at Ameristar Kansas City

Ameristar Kansas City, one of Missouri’s top-grossing casinos at 3200 N. Ameristar Drive, operates a Fanatics retail sportsbook. Bettors here earn FanCash on wagers, redeemable for sports merchandise or more bets, and benefit from the same Fair Play injury-refund policy offered on the app.

Fanatics Sportsbook at Ameristar St. Charles

Ameristar St. Charles, at 1 Ameristar Blvd. in the St. Louis metro area, is the second Fanatics retail location. It offers the same FanCash rewards and a sizable gaming floor, making it a convenient choice for bettors in the eastern part of the state.

theScore Bet at Hollywood Casino St. Louis

Hollywood Casino St. Louis, a PENN Entertainment property at 777 Casino Center Drive in Maryland Heights, hosts a theScore Bet retail book. It opened as part of the launch wave and gives St. Louis-area bettors an in-person option tied to the theScore media platform.

theScore Bet at River City Casino

River City Casino, another PENN property at 777 River City Casino Blvd. in south St. Louis, also operates a theScore Bet retail sportsbook with windows and kiosks for in-person wagering.

BetMGM at Century Casino Cape Girardeau

Century Casino Cape Girardeau, at 777 N. Main St., hosts a BetMGM retail book and holds a place in state history as the site of the first legal sports bet in Missouri, placed at 12:01 a.m. Central time on launch day. BetMGM is also tied to Century’s Caruthersville property.

Sports betting became legal in Missouri when voters approved Amendment 2 on Nov. 5, 2024, but it did not go live until Dec. 1, 2025, after more than a year of rulemaking and licensing.

The road was long. Missouri lawmakers tried for years to pass sports betting legislation after the Supreme Court struck down the federal ban in 2018, but bills repeatedly stalled, often because of disputes over video lottery terminals and how to tax the new market. With the legislature gridlocked, the state’s professional teams and the betting industry turned to the ballot box. DraftKings and FanDuel bankrolled most of a state-record campaign, contributing a combined sum north of 40 million dollars to the Winning for Missouri Education committee, while Caesars funded the opposition.

The vote was razor-thin. Amendment 2 passed by fewer than 3,000 votes, roughly 50.05 percent to 49.95 percent, with the certified tally showing 1,478,652 in favor and 1,475,691 opposed. The margin was narrow enough to put a recount on the table before officials certified the result Dec. 6, 2024.

Even after approval, the launch was delayed. Secretary of State Denny Hoskins rejected the commission’s proposed emergency rules in February 2025, which pushed the original mid-2025 target back and forced the full rulemaking process to run its course. The Missouri Gaming Commission ultimately set Dec. 1, 2025, as the go-live date, opened the license application window May 15, 2025, and finalized the rules that summer. It awarded the two untethered mobile licenses to DraftKings and Circa on Aug. 15, 2025, and granted temporary operator licenses in October. Pre-registration opened Nov. 17, 2025, and betting went live at 12:01 a.m. Central time Dec. 1, 2025.

Missouri’s market opened with strong demand and has since settled into a normal seasonal pattern. On launch day, the geolocation firm GeoComply recorded more than 2.6 million location checks and over 250,000 active accounts, on top of roughly 188,000 accounts created during the pre-registration window. During the first full week, more than 520,000 accounts had been created, and the Chiefs’ Arrowhead Stadium emerged as a hotspot, with more than 10,000 active accounts detected in and around the venue during a Sunday night game.

Looking at the full picture rather than month-to-month swings, Missouri is on pace to land near the top end of pre-launch projections in its first year of legal betting:

The first year started fast and then settled into a normal seasonal rhythm. December 2025, the launch month, produced the highest handle at roughly 543 million dollars, but generated only about 521,000 dollars in state tax because operators wrote off heavy launch promotions against their revenue. Handle cooled through the winter before picking back up around March Madness, a pattern typical of new markets as introductory bonuses wind down and hold rates normalize.

DraftKings and FanDuel have led the market, at times combining for more than 70 percent of total handle, with bet365 a distant third. The launch also reshaped neighboring states, with both Kansas and Illinois reporting year-over-year declines in betting handle as Missouri residents stopped crossing state lines to wager. The Missouri Gaming Commission publishes official monthly and fiscal-year sports wagering financial reports at mgc.dps.mo.gov, the authoritative source for handle, revenue and tax figures.

Missouri’s sports betting framework was established by Amendment 2, now part of the state constitution as Article III, Section 39(g), and is administered by the Missouri Gaming Commission, with the Secretary of State reviewing and approving the commission’s rules. The law sets a 10 percent tax on adjusted gross revenue, which is the total wagered minus payouts and certain allowable deductions, and that rate sits well below the national average. Tax proceeds support public education and the state’s Compulsive Gambling Prevention Fund after regulatory costs.

The licensing structure allows up to 14 online sportsbooks: six tied to Missouri’s casino companies, six tied to its professional sports teams and two untethered licenses. Each casino property and pro-team district can also operate a retail sportsbook, creating up to 19 retail licenses and 33 total. The untethered licenses carried a 500,000 dollar application fee, double the 250,000 dollar fee for tethered licenses.

An effort during the 2026 legislative session to raise the tax rate, with proposals reported as high as 34 percent, stalled and was removed from consideration, leaving the 10 percent rate in place.

Official Legal Text and Resources

For the official legal text and rules, bettors can consult the following:

Missouri allows wagering on professional and college sports, including in-state teams such as the Missouri Tigers. However, the law prohibits one category of bets: player-specific prop bets on games involving Missouri-based colleges and universities. That means you cannot bet on how many points a Mizzou basketball player will score or how many yards a Tigers football player will rush for, though traditional game lines, totals and team-based props remain available. Player props on out-of-state college teams are allowed.

In January 2026, the Missouri Gaming Commission rejected an NCAA request to broaden the ban on college athlete prop bets and to eliminate first-half under markets. The request followed a federal indictment tied to an NCAA basketball betting scheme, but the commission chair said she did not yet have enough information to change the rules less than two months after launch. The commission left open the possibility of revisiting the issue. The Sports Betting Alliance, which includes the major operators, argued that legal sportsbooks help detect suspicious activity that unregulated bookies would miss.

Other categories remain off the board. Betting on elections and political outcomes is prohibited, as it is in every regulated United States market. Wagering on entertainment outcomes such as the Oscars or Grammys, and on certain novelty Super Bowl props like the coin toss or Gatorade color, is also unavailable. Betting on high school and youth sports is not permitted. Separately, NCAA rules continue to bar all student-athletes, coaches and athletic staff from betting on any sport, regardless of state law.

Live in-game betting is one of the fastest-growing parts of the Missouri market. Rather than locking in a wager before kickoff, you bet on a game already in progress, with odds that update continuously as the action unfolds. All eight licensed books offer it, along with cash-out features that let you settle a bet early and same-game parlays built on live markets. Books such as bet365 and BetMGM are known for the deepest in-play menus and tools like Edit My Bet. Here is how live betting looks across the major sports Missouri bettors follow:

Mobile betting dominates the Missouri market. Analysts expect online wagering to account for roughly 95 percent of all bets placed in the state, and the launch numbers bore that out, with hundreds of thousands of accounts created in the first week and online apps driving nearly all of the early handle. For most bettors, the app is the sportsbook, so the quality of the software, the speed of payouts and the depth of the betting menu matter more than anything else.

What makes the mobile experience specific to Missouri is compliance. Every app uses geolocation to confirm you are physically inside state lines before it accepts a wager, which means a bet can work at home and then lock the moment you cross into Kansas or Illinois. That border sensitivity is a daily reality for bettors in the Kansas City and St. Louis metro areas. Beyond that, the registration and funding process mirrors what you would find in any legal state.

The table below compares the eight licensed Missouri apps on their store ratings and typical payout speeds. Ratings move over time, so treat them as a snapshot.

How to Start Betting on Mobile in Missouri

Getting set up takes only a few minutes.

Native App Versus Mobile Browser

Most operators offer both a downloadable app and a browser-based mobile site. Native apps tend to feel faster and more stable, with quicker logins and a smoother live-betting flow, which matters when odds are moving. Browser play avoids a download and works across devices but can feel slightly less responsive. Either way, the core betting menu, cashier and account tools are the same, and both enforce the same in-state geolocation requirement.

Many experienced bettors keep accounts at several Missouri sportsbooks. Doing so lets you claim multiple welcome bonuses, shop for the best line on a given game, which can meaningfully improve long-run returns, and access features that vary by operator, such as live streaming, unique prop markets and player-prop injury protection. There is no limit on how many licensed sportsbooks you can join, though each requires its own account and responsible-gambling discipline.

Missouri sportsbooks compete heavily on welcome offers, and understanding the different bonus types helps you pick the one that fits how you bet. Bonus bets generally pay out profit only, not the stake, and almost always carry terms such as minimum odds, expiration windows and playthrough requirements. Always read the terms before claiming.

When comparing offers, weigh the bonus size against the rollover, minimum deposit, qualifying odds and expiration window. A smaller bonus with a 1x playthrough can be easier to convert to withdrawable funds than a large bonus with a steep requirement.

Current Missouri Sportsbook Bonuses Compared

The table below compares current welcome offers. The first group is the eight regulated Missouri sportsbooks, which carry full state consumer protections. The second group is unregulated offshore books that accept Missouri players but are not licensed in the state, listed only for transparency. Bonus terms change often, so confirm the current offer before signing up.

The difference that matters most is not the headline number. Offshore bonuses can look larger, but they come without state oversight, dispute resolution or guaranteed payouts. A regulated Missouri bonus is backed by the Missouri Gaming Commission and the operator’s licensing obligations, which is why the regulated books are the safer place to put a bankroll.

Missouri sportsbooks offer a full menu of leagues and bet types. The most popular wagers include moneylines, point spreads, totals (over/under), parlays, same-game parlays, futures, prop bets and live in-game betting.

Leagues and Sports

Bettors can wager on the NFL, NBA, MLB, NHL, MLS and a wide range of additional sports, including college football and basketball, soccer leagues worldwide, golf, tennis, UFC, boxing, motorsports and esports, which Missouri’s law explicitly includes as a wagering category. The 2026 World Cup brings added attention, with matches scheduled at Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City.

Beyond sports betting, Missouri permits several forms of gambling. Daily fantasy sports have been legal and regulated since 2016 under the Missouri Fantasy Sports Consumer Protection Act, and major operators run contests openly. The state is home to 13 commercial riverboat casinos, the only venues with legal poker rooms, along with a state lottery operating since 1986 and charitable gaming such as bingo. Pari-mutuel horse racing has been authorized since 1984, but because Missouri has no active racetracks or approved online racebooks, practical horse betting options remain limited. Online casino games and online poker are not legal in Missouri.

The state taxes sportsbook operators at 10 percent of adjusted gross revenue, with proceeds directed to public education and a 5 million dollar annual allocation to the Compulsive Gambling Prevention Fund. That tax is paid by the operators, not by individual bettors.

Bettors, however, are responsible for their own taxes on winnings. The IRS treats all gambling winnings as taxable income. Sportsbooks generally issue tax forms and may withhold federal tax, commonly 24 percent, on certain large wins, often those of 5,000 dollars or more. Keeping records of wins and losses is the bettor’s responsibility, and offshore sites do not issue any tax documentation at all.

The Missouri Gaming Commission, based in Jefferson City, regulates sports wagering along with riverboat casinos, charitable bingo and daily fantasy sports. Bettors can reach the commission by phone at (573) 526-4080 or on X at @MissouriGaming, and can file sports wagering complaints or report suspicious activity directly through the commission’s website. The commission also publishes monthly sports wagering financial reports and the official list of approved mobile and retail operators.