Kansas City Star. September 1, 2022.
Editorial: Hey Kansas Chiefs fans: Will you be more concerned about your bets than the team now?
Kansas formally enters the sports wagering world Thursday, with a “soft launch” of state-sponsored, privately-operated betting on athletic events.
We’re excited to see plans to offer the betting finally take shape, but no one should be blind to the fact that it will also mean changes — not all of them good — as more and more fans participate.
The official opening is Sept. 8, just in time for the start of the NFL season.
You’ll no longer need to find a mysterious bookie to plop down $10 on a football long shot or the outcome of a baseball game. You can bet on your mobile phone, through an approved wagering app — or, eventually, in person at one of four Kansas casinos, or at betting kiosks scattered across the state.
You have to be in Kansas, physically, to place a bet, even on your phone. The wagering companies will check (in fact, they’re required to keep a detailed record of every bet you make.) But you don’t have to be a Kansan.
You do have to be at least 21 to bet.
We supported legalized sports gambling in Kansas after the U.S. Supreme Court in 2018 struck down a federal law partially banning it. Now that it’s finally here, a few reminders are in order.
The 10% tax on the gambling will mean only a modest revenue stream for Kansas and there’s every likelihood it will be squandered. The tax on bets will rake in roughly $5 million to $10 million annually.
And most of that money will be set aside to help pay the stadium expenses of professional sports franchises in the state, including the Chiefs if they decide to move across the state line. There are better ways to spend that money than on padding pro teams’ bottom lines.
But Americans like to gamble on sports. Since the high court’s ruling four years ago, sports bettors have made perfectly legal bets on athletic contests worth more than $125 billion. More than half the states allow sports betting.
There’s no reason Kansans should be denied access to sports wagering. The state already enables casino gaming, and a lottery, so the moral case against gambling is pretty tough to make.
Still, caution remains important. Bettors will face a bewildering array of options when they open a gambling app, with side bets and so-called “prop” bets on in-game outcomes. Nervous about whether the Chiefs will convert on third down and long? Now you’ll be able to bet on it.
You can lose a lot of money in a hurry if you aren’t careful.
Kansas wagering apps are required to offer customers a way to set limits on time and money they spend on their websites. They also have to tell you where to get help for compulsive gambling. In Kansas, the phone number is 1-800-522-4700, or www.ksgamblinghelp.com.
Casino gambling has ruined families and lives. Some gamblers have resorted to stealing and embezzlement to cover their bets, and have gone to prison as a result. Others have seen their or their family’s nest eggs vanish. No bet is worth that price.
There’s another kind of cost, too. Regular betting on sports can change a fan’s relationship to a game. One of the best things about living in a city with iconic pro teams is that so many of us rooting from the stands or from our living rooms experience the ups and downs of a season as a community. When the Chiefs are on a roll, it can feel as if Kansas City is, too.
That’s the glory, and the agony, of pro sports. But if enough people start caring more about the outcomes of their bets than the outcomes of the games? Well, something may well be lost.
But on the other hand, Kansas only bowed to the inevitably of sports betting when it agreed to allow it beginning Thursday. We urge everyone, bettors and non-bettors alike, to keep the wagering in perspective.
The games, after all, are still only that. And watching them is supposed to be fun.
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Topeka Capital Journal. September 2, 2022.
Editorial: We understand the need for power lines to Missouri. We want Kansas farmland preserved, though.
The builders of a proposed electric line taking nuclear energy from Kansas to Missouri now have eminent domain power. The Topeka Capital-Journal’s Jason Tidd reports they can’t use it until a final route has been approved.
Tidd reports the Kansas Corporation Commission granted public utility status to NextEra Energy Transmission Southwest, which plans to build a 94-mile, 345-kilovolt transmission line from the Wolf Creek nuclear power plant near Burlington to the Blackberry Substation in Missouri.
This planned route would run through Coffey, Anderson, Allen, Bourbon and Crawford counties, crossing large swaths of farmland rather than following highways.
It’s not without objections. Kansas farmers who will be impacted have made their opinions known. One even claimed NextEra has trespassed and damaged his property.
The KCC told farmers to take their concerns to the Kansas Legislature.
We don’t love eminent domain. But we understand why it exists.
We also see there is potential for energy cost savings for Kansans. Kansas will only pay for 16.5% of the estimated $85 million project. The rest of the project’s funding, Tidd reports, will come from the Southwest Power Pool, which covers Kansas and other 16 states in the region, to provide reliable supplies of power, adequate transmission infrastructure and competitive wholesale prices.
The KCC estimates this line will pass savings on to consumers, but the Kansas Industrial Consumers Group challenged the estimates.
All of this needs to be explored. Further, we’d like to see an option that follows the highway paths rather than carving through farmland.
Would this action have an added cost to the project? Most likely, but we feel the benefits might be in the best interest of Kansans.
The KCC estimates this line will pass savings on to consumers, but the Kansas Industrial Consumers Group challenged the estimates.
All of this needs to be explored. Further, we’d like to see an option that follows the highway paths rather than carving through farmland.
Would this action have an added cost to the project? Most likely, but we feel the benefits might be in the best interest of Kansans.
To do so, we need to learn a bit more. The KCC has the power to follow through on this and need to ensure it happens.
The KCC has already required NextEra to evaluate the feasibility of a double circuit line with an existing 25-mile, 161-kilovolt Evergy transmission line that would require less easement and reduce structure costs.
We’ll be watching to see what happens next.
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