Problem Gambling Treatment in Missouri

Casino gaming: Casinos are only legal and licensed in Missouri as floating facilities. The number of riverboat casino licenses is limited to 13, and all excursions must be along the Missouri and Mississippi rivers.

Online casino gaming: Online casinos are illegal and expected to remain illegal in Missouri for the foreseeable future. However, social and sweepstakes casino do operate within the state because they position themselves as “free play” casinos, even though there are real-money integrations (available when players “cash out” prizes). Unregulated online casinos also illegally accept residents from within Missouri. The latter is problematic because they do not monitor for problematic gambling behavior, and do not provide problem gamblers on their platform with access to effective self-exclusion tools.

Lottery: Lottery is legal and run by the state of Missouri.

Sports betting: Missouri is one of the more recent additions to the map of U.S. states with legal sports betting. Missouri voters approved Amendment 2 on November 5, 2024, and sports betting officially became legal one month later, making MO the 39th state to legalize the activity. At press, legal online sportsbooks have not yet been launched but are expected to be available by the midpoint of 2025. Meanwhile, unregulated offshore sportsbooks do register MO players.

Recent research regarding gambling addiction in Missouri include the following:

• 67% Missouri adults have gambled within the most recent year
• One out of 25 Missouri adults met the criteria for having a gambling disorder
• One out of five Missouri adults met the criteria for being at risk gamblers
• Missouri has only allocated about $500,000 fight problem gambling in the state

Further, MO residents share the following statistics with the rest of the United States:

• 20% of sports bettors are in or have been in debt from sports betting ( source )
• Average gambling addict (male) debt is between $55,000 and $90,000 ( source )
• About 3% of problem gamblers in the USA are $300,000 in debt due to their addiction ( source )
• Nearly 15% of problem gamblers have committed a crime to support their addiction ( source )
• Divorce rate for habitual gamblers is 31% compared to 21% for those who rarely gamble ( source )
• Suicide rate is 16 times higher for problem gamblers ( source )

The Kindbridge virtual platform helps Missouri residents quit gambling through more accessible, convenient, and powerful treatment services. Our counselors are accessible, whether you’re in Kansas City, St. Louis, Jefferson City, Springfield Branson, Joplin, Columbia, Saint Joseph, Rolla, Ozark, or any of the other cities, towns, and communities within the Show Me State.

In addition to problem gambling, Kindbridge counselors have expertise treating other mental/behavioral health issues that you may live with, such as anxiety and depression which impact more than 39% of the population in MO.

An inability (thus far) to quit sports betting and casino gaming also has an impact on loved ones. In addition to problem gambling treatment for individuals in Missouri, Kindbridge provides couples and family counseling.

Kindbridge Behavioral Health offers flexible pricing for online and telehealth counseling in Missouri. Problem gambling treatment rates and subscriptions can be found here.