The continued growth of sports betting has produced some big revenue numbers for state coffers in recent years and this week a few states exemplify just how eager Americans are to wager on football, baseball, basketball, and more.
The start of football season only helped the numbers for many states in September. For example, mobile betting produced a record $165.6 million in revenue in September while handle produced a six-month high of almost $1.8 billion.
States Seeing Surge in Sports Betting Revenue Numbers
New York mobile and online sports betting revenue was up 15.6% from $143.3 million from September 2022. That’s also up 68.1% from the $98.5 million from August, according to the New York State Gaming Commission.
The $1.79 billion in handle was an increase of 39.7% from $1.3 billion from the same month in 2022 and up 58.6% from $1.1 billion in August. September also saw the highest handle since March, when that total also reached $1.79 billion.
Numbers from Iowa also show that residents of the Hawkeye State have also been eager to wager. Despite having a low population, the state checks in among the top 10 (sixth) for the total bet this year at $1.2 billion. Iowans have bet more than $6 billion since sports betting was legalized in 2019.
Wagering on sports has been a boon to Illinois as well. The legislature’s Commission on Government Forecasting and Accountability recently released its annual “Wagering in Illinois” that included the state’s revenue from all forms of gaming in the state.
That total reached almost $2 billion for the most recent fiscal year that ended June 30, a 5.1% jump from the previous year. The state saw revenue of $143 million from sports betting with 305 million in wagers placed in fiscal year 2023. Sportsbook handle was $10.4 billion with the industry claiming $948 million in revenue.
The numbers in the report also point to just how popular mobile and online wagering is compared to heading to retail sportsbooks.
“Almost 99% of all sports bets were made online,” the Chicago Daily Herald reports. “That’s despite several casinos spending millions to build special sports betting venues. Sportsbooks at Wrigley Field and the United Center are expected to be operational soon as well, further saturating the market.”
Sports Betting Also Booms in Kentucky
The September launch of sports wagering in Kentucky also shows the surge in activity in that state, especially online and mobile betting. Betting went live at retail locations on Sept. 7 in retail locations, which took in $10 million in wagers before online betting kicked off on Sept. 28.
Gov. Andy Beshear (D) offered an update on betting in the state last week and noted that the state saw $68 million in bets in just the first four days that online betting went live. That included both online and retail betting, but no doubt online betting was a massive chunk of that. He sees that as a positive for Kentuckians as gaming money stays in the state via tax revenue rather than heading out to neighboring states.
“Kentuckians are taking advantage of legal wagering both in-person and through mobile applications to bet on a growing number of sports, including NFL, college sports, Formula 1 racing and more,” Beshear said. “Now we can look forward to watching these numbers grow and seeing the revenue it generates help build a better Kentucky.
“Best part is all of it stays in Kentucky helping with our pension system and other needs. This is the first time that Kentuckians have been able to stay home and our dollars haven’t gone to paving roads in Indiana or investing in other states around us.”
More States Getting Board
As of now, 34 states have live and legal sports betting options of some sort, whether retail, online, or both. Washington D.C. and Puerto Rico have also legalized.
A couple other states have also legalized but are awaiting launch. Maine legalized sports betting in August 2022, but is still awaiting regulatory approval. State officials recently announced that betting is expected to start from somewhere around Nov. 5-15 after the state attorney general’s office completes the rulemaking process for final legal review.
“Once they’ve approved it, then I will forward it to the Secretary of State’s office,” executive director of the Maine Gambling Control Unit Milt Champion told Maine Public Radio. “They typically take three to five business days and then once the Secretary of State′s office posts the adopted rules on their website, then we go live.”
Vermont has also legalized in June, but bettors will have to wait a bit before placing that parlay as betting isn’t expected to launch until 2024.
