Sports betting apps give away free bets worth millions of dollars. Kansans are subsidizing that

When Kansas lawmakers legalized sports betting, they seemingly gave lobbyists for casinos everything they wanted. That includes tax exemptions on promotional bets that are aimed at getting bettors hooked.
Editor's note: This is the first of a two-part series on sports betting in Kansas. Part two will publish next week.

Kansas taxpayers subsidize the millions of dollars nationwide sports gambling apps hand out to bettors for their initial wagers that get them in the habit of gambling.

The new sports betting industry also makes hardly any revenue for the state, amounting to a small drop in the bucket of the state’s multi-billion dollar operating budget.