This Chiefs legend will place one of Missouri’s first legal sports bets
.JPG "Legendary Kansas City Chiefs tight end Tony Gonzalez is scheduled to place one of Missouri’s first legal bets on sports on Monday to mark the state’s rollout of sports gambling.")
Legendary Kansas City Chiefs tight end Tony Gonzalez is scheduled to place one of Missouri’s first legal bets on sports on Monday to mark the state’s rollout of sports gambling.
The Pro Football Hall of Fame tight end will be part of a trio of Missouri sports icons to place a ceremonial first bet at the Andre’s at Palladium event venue in St. Louis Monday afternoon, according to a media advisory from gambling giant DraftKings.
The DraftKings event, which is not open to the general public, will also feature former St. Louis Rams star Isaac Bruce and St. Louis Blues legend Brett Hull.
The bets will serve as a ceremonial kickoff to sports wagering after Missourians narrowly voted to legalize the practice last November. After months of draft rules and regulations, companies like DraftKings, FanDuel, Fanatics and BetMGM will begin accepting wagers inside state lines on Monday.
Monday’s event will also feature Missouri House Speaker Jonathan Patterson, a Lee’s Summit Republican, and Lori Kalani, DraftKings’ chief responsible gaming officer.
“Chiefs, of course,” Patterson said when asked by The Star what he would bet on. The top Republican said he planned to place roughly $20 on the Chiefs in their upcoming matchup against the Houston Texans.
“I think it’s time we have legalized sports betting in Missouri,” said Patterson, who added that he was also excited to see Gonzalez, the Chiefs’ tight end from 1997 to 2008.
The DraftKings event is one of several rollouts across the state. Former Kansas City Royals star Alex Gordon is also scheduled to place a ceremonial first bet at the Ameristar Casino Hotel Kansas City on Monday.
The narrow passage of an amendment to the Missouri Constitution last November opened the door for the state’s professional sports teams and casinos to offer sports betting. The vote came just two years after sports gambling became legal in neighboring Kansas.
The major campaign supporting the amendment, called Winning for Missouri Education, was backed by every major professional sports team in Missouri and raised millions of dollars, including from gambling heavyweights FanDuel and DraftKings.
The effort came after Missouri lawmakers had tried, and failed, to pass similar legislation amid bitter infighting among Senate Republicans over whether gas station slot machines, which exist in a murky legal area, should also be regulated.
The coalition of sports teams, led by the St. Louis Cardinals, collected more than 340,000 signatures to place the measure on the ballot.
Missouri will tax sports betting at 10% with revenue first going to the Missouri Gaming Commission to pay for expenses to regulate sports gambling and $5 million allocated to a fund intended to help prevent compulsive gambling.
Many sports fans have celebrated the vote as supporters have routinely argued that gamblers were simply crossing into neighboring Kansas and Illinois to place their bets. Others said Missouri was missing out on key revenue from legal bets.
The amendment’s potential benefit to public education was the central focus for the campaign, which promoted the idea in advertising in the lead-up to the vote. But whether, and how much, the amendment would actually benefit education has been up for debate.
Legal sports wagering has also faced an onslaught of criticism as detractors point to addiction concerns, predatory or misleading advertising and its impact on the integrity of sporting events.
In 2022, The New York Times published an investigation into the gambling industry, finding that the sports betting industry had devised ways to persuade people to keep betting even after they lose money. The newspaper also reported that tools to make it easier to quit — some run by gambling companies, others by states — did not always work.
Former Mizzou Tigers standout basketball player Jontay Porter is often used as a poster child for the drawbacks of sports betting. The NBA banned Porter for life last year for violating the league’s gambling policies while playing for the Toronto Raptors.
