New Illinois Wagering Tax Could Boost Missouri Sports Betting

Sports bettors in Missouri are nearly six months away from being able to place legal bets in their state, but they may have already picked up their first win.

Lawmakers in Illinois pushed through a tax increase on sports betting this past weekend, which could result in online sportsbooks paying even more attention to the Show-Me State as its Dec. 1, 2025, launch date approaches.

That attention could mean better promos and maybe even better odds at Missouri sports betting apps than their eastern neighbors.

New Illinois Sports Betting Taxes Included in State Budget

The latest state budget was passed by the Illinois state legislature on Saturday, May 31, and it includes another tax hike on sports betting.

But this tax is unique in that it hits every bet made in Illinois, which could have broad implications. With the new rules, a $0.25 charge will be placed on the first 20 million online sports bets taken in the state during the year, and that jumps to $0.50 per bet after 20 million.

That’s a fee which will be paid by operators who were hit with a new, progressive Illinois sports betting tax increase almost exactly one year earlier.

The top online sportsbooks are certainly not going to leave Illinois, as it’s the second biggest market in the country. But, you can bet they’ll start looking for ways to offset these tax increases.

How Illinois Tax Law Could Help Missouri Sports Betting

There are a couple ways that immediately come to mind which could help operators offset that loss of revenue, and both will benefit future bettors in Missouri and the state’s tax revenue.

The first is ramping up customer acquisition in other states. If new bettors in Illinois aren’t making online sportsbooks as much money anymore, they will look to other states to make up for that, and that could mean better promos outside the state.

Offering different sports betting promos to new users in different states is nothing new, as operators realize bettors in certain states are more valuable to them than others. With Missouri being the only state set to launch at the moment, much of the focus was going to be there anyway. But, now that its neighbor has made it harder to make money, I expect those efforts to get ramped up.

That could very well mean more lucrative bonuses for Missouri bettors on Dec. 1 and beyond, whether that’s in the form of a big-money First Bet offer or an easy access Bet & Get bonus. Missouri bettors were already the next big acquisition target, and they just became that much more attractive.

There’s also the possibility that operators will hit Illinois bettors with an increased vig to make up for those fees. So rather than -110 on both sides of the spread on NFL games, it might be -115 or worse. That’s a pretty simple way to make up those extra cents.

Now, it’s rare to see odds differ like that from state to state. But a per-bet tax is also rare, so extreme lengths could be taken.

If they are, there’s 361-mile border between Illinois and Missouri, and those close to it may not hesitate to cross over for better odds. It’s a move that saves the sportsbooks money and contributes to the tax revenue of Missouri, while draining some of the anticipated $36 million Illinois lawmakers expect to make from this tax.

Missouri Sports Betting to Launch Dec. 1, 2025

Thanks to Missouri’s sports betting launch getting knocked all the way back to Dec. 1, a lot of this is going to play out before anyone places a bet there.

Operators will get to calculate just how hard this tax will hit them, and Illinois bettors will get a chance to see how they react if it does—then chart the best path to one of the 133 bridges to take in order to grab Bears +7 (-110).