Five times as many Kansans are at high risk for problem gambling when compared to data from 2017.
Gambling addiction can lead to substance use, relationship problems and health issues, said Lisa Chaney, a researcher who worked on the 2025 Kansas Gambling Survey. Problem gambling comes with a 50-fold increase in suicide attempts as 63% of high-risk gamblers said their depression was linked to betting.
Takeaways
- A 2025 survey found that 20% of Kansans are at high risk for problem gambling.
- Some Kansas lawmakers are frustrated with the state’s sportsbook contracts. Those contracts don’t run out until 2027.
- The committee wants lawmakers to study the issue more in the upcoming session.
These behaviors are increasing because people are betting more often, due in part to the legalization of sports betting in Kansas in 2022. The lottery and casinos are still the most common types of gambling, but sports betting was 20% of bets, respondents to the survey said.
Kansas lawmakers are concerned.
“Our fellow Kansans are being drugged out, soaked for every dollar they have. … We have to take that seriously,” said Rep. Francis Awerkamp, a St. Marys Republican. “The data is being used to find ways to keep squeezing money out of these people.”
Lawmakers want to further study the link between betting and intimate partner violence and want more comprehensive data on how much money gamblers are losing. They want to study adjusting tax rates for sports betting and possibly changing sportsbook contracts. Their requests for additional research came during a Monday meeting of the legislature’s Special Committee on Federal and State Affairs.
The committee received an update to the Kansas Gambling Survey. The last survey was done in 2017, before sports betting was legalized. The survey asked 1,645 Kansans about their betting habits.
Among other things, respondents were asked how often they gambled. In 2017, only 13.1% of people gambled occasionally and 2.7% gambled often. In 2025, 24.6% of people gambled occasionally and 8.6% bet often.
Survey respondents also were asked if they gambled in the past 30 days. In 2017, only 47.8% of people said they had. That number jumped to 70.8% in 2025.
The most popular types of betting were the lottery, in-game purchases (like buying extra lives in a gambling game), casino gaming machines, bingo and table games at a casino.
Sports betting and other laws to make the lottery digital are increasing access to bets. People no longer need to run off to a casino when their phone can do all the betting for them.
The survey found that betting is becoming more socially accepted and there’s limited use of programs to help people.
Rep. Brooklynne Mosley, a Lawrence Democrat, is particularly concerned about gambling’s impact on men. Of the people surveyed who have sportsbook accounts, 83% of them were men and 36% were people between 26 and 39 years old.
Buying a lottery ticket is still gambling, but Mosley said there’s a big difference between a $2 lottery ticket and hundreds of dollars in bets on the Chiefs in the Super Bowl. She also wants to see better data.
The survey asked how often people bet, but that information was self-reported. Mosley said betting once or twice may seem like a lot to someone who doesn’t gamble at all, but it may also seem like nothing compared to someone betting five figures at a time.
Awerkamp, the St. Marys Republican, was one of the fiercest critics of gambling during the meeting. He asked state officials if a ban on betting advertisements would reduce gambling addiction.
“If we’re pouring gasoline on a fire,” said Awerkamp, who voted against legalizing sports gambling, “rather than trying to find a bigger fire extinguisher, any thoughts on just banning the marketing of gambling?”
Awerkamp was also frustrated by the casinos, who said Kansas has been a sports betting success story. He said gambling addiction is on the rise and Kansas is pulling in far less money, as a percentage of bets, than other states.
After one Chief’s Super Bowl run, Kansans bet $194 million in one month. The state only collected $1,134.
The sportsbook contracts end in 2027. Lawmakers are interested in adjusting contract language and possibly taxing slightly more.
Casinos’ representatives argue that raising taxes on sports betting would force them to offer worse odds to make profit and would drive people to illegal betting sites. But Awerkamp wasn’t deterred, noting that the Kansas Lottery was created because people were told it would bring revenue to the state.
“I believe that the Kansas Lottery was put there for the good of the people, not for the good of the casinos,” he said.
