The 17 Bridges Illinois Bettors Can Take to Use Missouri Sports Betting Apps and Avoid Per-Bet Fees

• Users at Missouri sports betting apps will not be subject to per-bet fees like they are in Illinois
• Missouri and Illinois share a border, separated by the Mississippi River
• More than a dozen bridges connect the two states

The launch of Missouri sports betting apps on December 1 is certainly exciting for those in the Show-Me State, but it will also open up opportunities for some of their neighbors.

Bettors from Illinois, who recently became subject to per-bet fees at online sportsbooks, can escape west and make their wagers in Missouri to avoid said fees.

While betting traffic had been one way for the past five years, it now makes a lot more sense to go the other way, and I’ve scoped out the 17 bridges over the Mississippi River you can take from Illinois to Missouri and make your bets.

List of Bridges Connecting Illinois and Missouri

I traveled the Mississippi along the entirety of the Missouri-Illinois border (by scrolling on Google maps) and found every bridge, either pedestrian or roadway, that connects the two. Here they are:

• Historic Chester Iron Bridge
• 1st-Jefferson Barracks Bridge
• Bill Emerson Memorial Bridge
• Quincy Bayview Bridge
• Quincy Memorial Bridge
• Mark Twain Memorial Bridge
• Champ Clark Bridge:
• Clark Bridge
• New Chain of Rocks Bridge
• Old Chain of Rocks Bridge (pedestrian)
• McKinley Bridge
• Poplar Street Bridge
• Stan Musial Veterans Memorial Bridge
• Martin Luther King Bridge
• Eads Bridge
• Cairo I-57 Bridge
• Historic Cairo Mississippi River Bridge

If you’re more of a visual learner, here’s a map:

I did not include train bridges or any of the many dams that connect the two states, as I can’t recommend you crossing those for legal and safety reasons.

The largest cluster of these bridges is obviously near St. Louis, as nine of the 17 stretch from I-255 in the south to US 67 in the north.

Which Sports Betting Apps Are Legal in Missouri?

Nine sports betting apps have been granted licenses by the Missouri Gaming Commission, and you will be able to use them to place bets starting on Dec. 1.

Of those nine, there are eight that are also available in Illinois:

• DraftKings Missouri
• BetMGM Missouri
• bet365 Missouri
• FanDuel Missouri
• Fanatics Sportsbook Missouri
• Caesars Sportsbook Missouri
• ESPN BET Missouri / theScore Bet Missouri
• Circa Missouri

There is one Missouri sports betting app that those in Illinois do not have access to:

• Underdog Missouri

There are three very important things to know when it comes to betting and crossing state lines:

1. You can make a bet in any legal betting state even if you downloaded the app somewhere else, as long as that operator is licensed to operate in the state you are physically located in while placing the wager.
2. You cannot claim a new user bonus if you already have an account with an online sportsbook that was created in a different state.
3. If you claim a pre-registration bonus listed above, you must be located in Missouri both when you claim it and make the first bet that triggers it.

If you are new to any of those sportsbooks, you can click through our links above to claim the Missouri sports betting promo they are offering. Chances are, it’s much more lucrative than what you can get in Illinois at the moment.

Illinois Per-Bet Tax Explained

Over the summer, Illinois lawmakers approved a per-bet tax on operators, collecting $0.25 for the first 20 million bets, and $0.50 for any bets taken after that.

Not surprisingly, many operators decided to pass that tax onto its customers, charging either $0.25 or $0.50 for every bet you place through the sportsbook.

For some bettors, this isn’t much more than an annoyance. If you’re betting $100, getting charged $0.50 is probably not going to stop you. But for someone like me that regularly bets in increments of $5, that’s 10% of my actual bet!

Would stop me from betting altogether? No. But it would make me think twice more often than I do. And if I were placing a cluster of bets as I tend to do on a Saturday morning in the fall, it would add up. For the record, I live in Michigan, so I don’t have to deal with this.

But if you’re on the west side of Illinois, within a short drive of Missouri, why not head across one of those bridges to place your bets for the week? Add in the fact you might be able to take advantage of one of those bonuses, and it really could be worth your time.