Missouri Casino Guide (2024)
Are you looking to gamble in Missouri? On this page you’ll find all the information you need, regardless of whether you want to gamble live on one of 13 riverboat casinos in Missouri, or if you want to explore the offshore online casinos. In the latter case, we’ll also give you the Missouri casino deals, exclusive bonuses and no deposit bonuses.
Long story short, if you’re in Missouri and want to gamble, this is the page where you’ll find everything you need. You will be able to find a riverboat casino near you, and you’ll also be given information regarding online casinos, for those days when you don’t feel like driving to a real casino.
Here are the four key things you’ll find on this page:
- List and key facts of 13 Missouri riverboat casinos
- Best online casino deals in Missouri
- Missouri gambling laws past, present and future
- Your FAQs answered
Casinos & Gambling in Missouri – An Overview
As far as gambling in Missouri goes, you basically have a choice between visiting one of 13 riverboats, or going online to play at offshore casinos that we recommend on this page.
There are no licensed online casinos in the state, but fortunately you’re on the right page that will guide you towards the most reputable offshore USA online casinos that accept Missouri players. So if online gambling is what you want, make sure to use our links to sign up to get the best deals.
If, on the other hand, you want an overview of the land-based options, then read on. We’ll tell you all about the Missouri riverboat casinos and you’ll be able to find one near you.
Live poker and online daily fantasy sports are allowed in Missouri, while sports betting is not in any shape or form, and horse racing is technically allowed but it doesn’t exist in the state.
Land Based Casinos In Missouri
In Missouri you technically won’t find any land-based casinos, as all of them are riverboat casinos, but they remain docked at all times, so players can’t even tell the difference. There are 13 riverboat casino locations across the state. Four gravitate towards St. Louis, four towards Kansas City, and the remaining five are very small (28,000 sqft and less) and are scattered across the state. On this list, we’re ranking the riverboat casinos in Missouri from largest to smallest:
- Ameristar Casino Hotel (Kansas City) – 140,000 sqft
- Ameristar Casino Resort (St. Charles, St. Louis) – 130,000 sqft
- Hollywood Casino St. Louis (Maryland Heights, St. Louis) – 120,000 sqft
- River City Casino and Hotel (St. Louis) – 90,000 sqft
- Horseshoe St. Louis (St. Louis) – 75,000 sqft
- Argosy Casino Hotel and Spa (Riverside, Kansas City) – 62,000 sqft
- Harrah’s North (Kansas City) – 60,000 sqft
- Bally’s Casino (Kansas City) – 45,000 sqft
- Isle of Capri Casino Hotel (Boonville) – 28,000 sqft
- Isle Casino Cape Girardeau (Cape Girardeau) – 21,000 sqft
- Lady Luck Casino (Caruthersville) – 21,000 sqft
- Mark Twain Casino (La Grange) – 18,000 sqft
- St. Jo Frontier Casino (St. Joseph) – 18,000 sqft
Casinos in St Louis Missouri
St. Louis is home to four of the five largest riverboat casinos in Missouri, so if you live in or near St. Louis, you’re in luck. There are four quality options to choose from.
Ameristar Casino Resort Spa St. Charles
Owned by Boyd Gaming since 2018, Ameristar Casino Resort Spa is a large casino just northwest of St. Louis on the Missouri river. It opened in 1994 as one of the first two casinos in the state. It was bought by Ameristar in 2000 and the extensive upgrades took place in 2008 when hotel was added.
Address: 1 Ameristar Blvd, St. Charles, MO 63301
Gaming space: 130,000 sqft
Games: over 2,000 slots, table games, poker room
Hotel rooms: 400
Amenities: Pool, spa, 7 restaurants, 12 bars, entertainment venue
Hollywood Casino St. Louis
Technically in Maryland Heights, the Hollywood Casino still caters to St. Louis, even more so than the Ameristar Casino Resort Spa St. Charles that’s located on the opposite bank of the Missouri river. This is a very large casino with lots of slots that was bought by Penn from Ceasars in 2012 and renamed from Harrah’s St. Louis.
Address: 777 Casino Center Dr, Maryland Heights, MO 63043
Gaming space: 120,000 sqft
Games: 2,100 slots, 90 table games
Hotel rooms: 500
Amenities: live entertainment, restaurants, fitness center
River City Casino and Hotel
River City is a modern casino, built in 2010, that uses a 1904 World’s Fair theme. This is a large, luxurious casino with a hotel, restaurants, and a sports bar that doubles as a live music venue by night. Take note that this is the only casino in the St. Louis area that doesn’t have a poker room. It had one but it was repurposed into a baccarat room in 2018.
Address: 777 River City Casino Blvd, Lemay, St. Louis, MO 63125
Gaming space: 90,000 sqft
Games: 2,000 slots, 55 table games
Hotel rooms: 200
Amenities: 75-seat Judy’s Velvet lounge (sports bar, live music), 6 restaurants
Horseshoe St. Louis
Formerly known as Lumiere Place, Horseshoe is a casino hotel operated by Caesars. It has two hotels – Horseshoe Hotel and the 19-story Four Seasons Hotel that also has 14 suites. This is a relatively new casino as it was built in 2007 by the same architectural studio that built Bellagio in Las Vegas. The casino is technically floating on water but there is no way to know when you walk in.
Address: 999 N 2nd St, St. Louis, MO 63102
Gaming space: 75,000 sqft
Games: 1,450 slots, 55 table games, 10-table poker room
Hotel rooms: two hotels with a total of 494 rooms
Amenities: 450-seat theater for live entertainment
Casinos in Kansas City Missouri
Kansas City has four casinos, with another one 50 miles north of the city (St. Jo Frontier Casino). The only one near the downtown area is a small Bally’s casino, so that’s the one to visit for your daily gambling needs, and there are two large resorts just outside the city.
Ameristar Casino Hotel (Kansas City)
Ameristar Casino Hotel is situated just a few miles away from downtown Kansas City, near the airport, and within 15 minutes of the Arrowhead Stadium and Worlds of Fun. This is a perfect Midwestern entertainment center, with lots of things to do.
Address: 3200 N Ameristar Dr, Kansas City, MO 64161
Gaming space: 140,000 sqft
Games: 2,800 slots, 57 table games, 15-table poker room
Hotel rooms: 184, including 12 king suites
Amenities: 7 restaurants, bar, conference space, Worlds of Fun is nearby
Argosy Casino Hotel and Spa (Riverside)
Located in Riverside, on the Missouri river, Argosy Casino Hotel and Spa is just northwest of downtown Kansas City. It features a large gaming space and a lot of space for any events and conferences.
Address: 777 NW Argosy Casino Pkwy, Riverside, MO 64150
Gaming space: 62,000 sqft
Games: 1,500 slots and 57 table games
Hotel rooms: 258
Amenities: full-service spa, dining
Harrah’s North (Kansas City)
Harrah’s North has a 3-star hotel with almost 400 rooms, and is a decent overall option for your gambling needs if you happen to be north of Kansas City.
Address: 1 Riverboat Dr, North Kansas City, MO 64116
Gaming space: 60,000 sqft
Games: 1,800 slots and table games
Hotel rooms: 392
Amenities: Gordon Ramsay Steak
Bally’s Kansas City
The best thing about Bally’s Kansas City is its location, as it’s the nearest casino to Kansas City downtown, just north of Kessler Park. Of course, the Bally name also means something if you like how they do things. This is a relatively small casino without a hotel, but again, it’s the location that counts.
Address: 1800 E Front St, Kansas City, MO 64120
Gaming space: 45,000 sqft
Games: 900 slots and table games
Hotel rooms: n/a
Amenities: 3 restaurants
Casinos in Springfield Missouri
There are no land-based casinos in Springfield, Missouri, but there are two close ones right across the border to Oklahoma: Quapaw Downstream Casino Resort, and Kansas Crossing Casino & Hotel in Pittsburg. Wyandotte casinos are also nearby, also in Oklahoma.
Driving to St. Louis or Kansas City probably isn’t that much of a hassle but there’s no reason to do that since the Oklahoma casinos are larger, better and closer than the riverboat casinos around St. Louis and Kansas City.
Casinos In Branson Missouri
If you’re in Branson, you won’t have any casinos near you, at least not in the state of Missouri. There are several huge casino resorts in Oklahoma, most notably in Wyandotte that is less than 80 miles away. The other option would be to stay in Missouri and drive to either Kansas City or St. Louis, but that’s much further away and the casino resorts in Oklahoma are larger.
Gambling Law in Missouri
Missouri has very restrictive gambling laws that still allow for the existance of casinos, albeit riverboat casinos. There are 13 such casinos in the state. There is no requirement for the riverboat to leave the dock, so these casinos are all permanently docked.
Horse racing is a dead industry in Missouri as it is technically allowed, but the last racetrack died in the 1990s. Off-track betting is allowed only on days when there is a race in the state, and that never happens anymore.
When it comes to online gambling, daily fantasy sports (DraftKings, FanDuel and Yahoo) is the only explicitly allowed form of gambling. A bill, HB 1941, was introduced in 2016, that made fantasy sports explicitly legal as it declared DFS is not gambling. The bill doesn’t do anything else and doesn’t regulate DFS in any way.
Other forms of online gambling remain unregulated. It seems Missouri is content with its riverboat casinos being practically the only legal option to gamble, and there are no recent developments that would suggest the state wants to open up to online operators.
Legal Gambling Age For Missouri
The legal gambling age in Missouri is 21 for casinos and slots, 21 for daily fantasy sports, and 18 for lottery, bingo, poker and parimutuel horse racing. The legal age for participating in charity games is 16.
Is Gambling Taxed in Missouri?
Yes – Missouri withholds 4% of any jackpot prize that is over $1,200 on any electronic gaming device or casino table game.
It’s interesting to note that the riverboat casinos in Missouri are among the highest-taxed gambling establishments in the country, as the effective tax rate is 24.5%, most of which goes to education, with the remainder going to local communities.
Missouri Casinos – FAQs
How many casinos are there in Missouri?
Missouri has a total of 13 casinos. Four are near St. Louis, four near Kansas City, and the remaining five are scattered across the state.
Why are Missouri casinos on water?
This is due to the legal requirement – casinos must be riverboat casinos. There is no legal requirement for the riverboat to actually leave the dock, so the casinos remain docked. They don’t even look like riverboats anymore – they are just structures that float on water.
Is gambling legal in Missouri?
Yes, gambling at land-based riverboat casinos is legal. Slots, casino table games and poker are available. Sports betting is not legal, but daily fantasy sports is. Online gambling isn’t regulated in any way, and DFS is the only explicitly allowed online form of gambling.
Can I play at online casinos from Missouri?
Yes, if you choose one of the reputable offshore casinos. Online gambling isn’t regulated in Missouri so there is no licensing process. You are free to choose one of the casino operators that does take you as a customer, though.
