Hey Kansas Chiefs fans: Will you be more concerned about your bets than the team now?

Kansas formally enters the sports wagering world Thursday, with a “soft launch” of state-sponsored, privately-operated betting on athletic events.

We’re excited to see plans to offer the betting finally take shape, but no one should be blind to the fact that it will also mean changes — not all of them good — as more and more fans participate.

The official opening is Sept. 8, just in time for the start of the NFL season.

You’ll no longer need to find a mysterious bookie to plop down $10 on a football long shot or the outcome of a baseball game. You can bet on your mobile phone, through an approved wagering app — or, eventually, in person at one of four Kansas casinos, or at betting kiosks scattered across the state.

You have to be in Kansas, physically, to place a bet, even on your phone. The wagering companies will check (in fact, they’re required to keep a detailed record of every bet you make.) But you don’t have to be a Kansan.

You do have to be at least 21 to bet.

We supported legalized sports gambling in Kansas after the U.S. Supreme Court in 2018 struck down a federal law partially banning it. Now that it’s finally here, a few reminders are in order.

The 10% tax on the gambling will mean only a modest revenue stream for Kansas and there’s every likelihood it will be squandered. The tax on bets will rake in roughly $5 million to $10 million annually.

And most of that money will be set aside to help pay the stadium expenses of professional sports franchises in the state, including the Chiefs if they decide to move across the state line. There are better ways to spend that money than on padding pro teams’ bottom lines.

But Americans like to gamble on sports. Since the high court’s ruling four years ago, sports bettors have made perfectly legal bets on athletic contests worth more than $125 billion. More than half the states allow sports betting.

There’s no reason Kansans should be denied access to sports wagering. The state already enables casino gaming, and a lottery, so the moral case against gambling is pretty tough to make.

Still, caution remains important. Bettors will face a bewildering array of options when they open a gambling app, with side bets and so-called “prop” bets on in-game outcomes. Nervous about whether the Chiefs will convert on third down and long? Now you’ll be able to bet on it.

You can lose a lot of money in a hurry if you aren’t careful.

Kansas wagering apps are required to offer customers a way to set limits on time and money they spend on their websites. They also have to tell you where to get help for compulsive gambling. In Kansas, the phone number is 1-800-522-4700, or www.ksgamblinghelp.com.

Casino gambling has ruined families and lives. Some gamblers have resorted to stealing and embezzlement to cover their bets, and have gone to prison as a result. Others have seen their or their family’s nest eggs vanish. No bet is worth that price.

There’s another kind of cost, too. Regular betting on sports can change a fan’s relationship to a game. One of the best things about living in a city with iconic pro teams is that so many of us rooting from the stands or from our living rooms experience the ups and downs of a season as a community. When the Chiefs are on a roll, it can feel as if Kansas City is, too.

That’s the glory, and the agony, of pro sports. But if enough people start caring more about the outcomes of their bets than the outcomes of the games? Well, something may well be lost.

But on the other hand, Kansas only bowed to the inevitably of sports betting when it agreed to allow it beginning Thursday. We urge everyone, bettors and non-bettors alike, to keep the wagering in perspective.

The games, after all, are still only that. And watching them is supposed to be fun.

This story was originally published September 1, 2022 at 5:00 AM.