Two months into legal sports betting, Missouri is looking less like a partner and more like a bystander at the sportsbook cash register. DraftKings and FanDuel have pocketed roughly $120 million while the state has taken in about $659,000 in wagering taxes, even as the two giants handled roughly three-quarters of nearly $928 million wagered through January. Both companies spent tens of millions on the ballot campaign that legalized betting, and the early split between operator profits and state receipts is already drawing heat from education advocates and some lawmakers.
According to the Missouri Gaming Commission, licensed sportsbooks recorded about $928 million in handle during the first two months of legal wagering, with mobile apps accounting for almost all of it. The commission reports that wagering-tax collections for the period totaled roughly $659,196, which leaves the state with only a thin slice of the early betting dollars.
As reported by the Missouri Independent, DraftKings and FanDuel together logged about $120 million in gross wins from bets placed in Missouri, roughly three times what they spent backing the 2024 campaign for Amendment 2. Players wagered $339.7 million on DraftKings and $338.4 million on FanDuel in the opening stretch, and operator-reported wins cited by the Independent were $54.4 million for DraftKings and $65.6 million for FanDuel. Cardetti of the Sports Betting Alliance told the outlet that the early numbers were laying a foundation for longer-term growth.
How The Amendment Lets Promos Erase Taxable Profit
The constitutional amendment voters approved allows operators to subtract a wide range of business costs, including the cost of free play or promotional credits, subject to a 25 percent cap per month, as well as federal taxes, when calculating adjusted gross revenue for taxation. The official ballot text from the Missouri Secretary of State also permits operators to carry negative adjusted gross receipts from one month forward to offset future months.
Those write-offs are already visible in the regulator's ledger. DraftKings and FanDuel reported large promotional adjustments that pushed their taxable adjusted gross revenue into negative territory for the two-month window, with roughly $20.6 million and $8.1 million in net write-offs, respectively, that can be carried forward to trim future tax bills. Because of those carryforwards, both companies showed no wagering-tax liability for the period, according to the commission report.
Where The Money Was Meant To Go
The amendment sets a 10 percent wagering tax with a set order for where that money goes. Under the language published by the Missouri Secretary of State, tax proceeds first cover the Missouri Gaming Commission's regulatory costs, then fund a $5 million Compulsive Gambling Prevention Fund, and only after that is any remaining money sent to elementary, secondary and higher education.
Industry representatives say this kind of early promotional blitz was expected as rival sportsbooks scramble for market share, while critics argue that the campaign architects wrote in generous loopholes that let companies shelter revenue. Local coverage notes that promotional credits and aggressive sign-up offers, a standard playbook in new markets, are the main reason Missouri's short-term tax take is so low, according to reporting from KBIA.
What happens next will show whether promotional spending cools off and state revenue rises, or whether lawmakers decide to revisit the deduction rules baked into the amendment. Advocates say tax collections should grow as operators scale back promotional spending, a point the Missouri Independent reported, but for now Missouri schools are seeing only a tiny share of the betting boom.
