Sports betting = tax money for states

 

How big is US sports betting?

You can bet on one thing during almost any major sporting event: the fact that people are wagering on the game. Since 2018, when the Supreme Court allowed states to control their own sports betting laws, gambling on games has become a pastime generating millions in tax revenue across the country. Thirty-nine states and Washington, DC, have legalized either online or in-person sports betting, and have varying laws specifying which sports are allowed and how they’re taxed.     From January through September 2025, sports betting generated $2.71 billion in state tax revenue. Over the same period in 2024, it brought in $2.15 billion. Sports betting tax revenue has increased each year since data collection began in 2021.  Sports betting revenue tends to be seasonal: it’s higher in the fall and winter months, peaking in January through March during major sporting events, including the Super Bowl and March Madness.    Between October 2024 and September 2025, New York generated the most sports betting tax revenue of any state: $1.2 billion in a year. South Dakota levied the least: $118,000. New York was the only state to generate over a billion in revenue.    Ten states generated between $100 million and $500 million in revenue: Illinois, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, Maryland, New Jersey, North Carolina, Kentucky, Virginia, and Tennessee.  See the data How governments divide responsibilities — and costs  Think splitting a bill with a group of friends is tough? Try figuring out how the nation’s nearly 91,000 government entities (yes, you read that right) split the costs for the services at federal, state, and local levels. USAFacts Founder Steve Ballmer breaks down government spending in the newest episode of Just the Facts. See the data Ask an Analyst: Coloring in the political map  Ask an Analyst takes you behind the scenes with our team as it scours government sources for data to answer pressing questions. In this installment, Chris discusses how USAFacts answers two political questions that a) our readers often ask and b) are somewhat open-ended or hard to measure.  Readers often ask how red or blue each state is. Presidential election results are one way to answer this question. Federal Election Commission data shows that Donald Trump won Wyoming by 46 points in 2024, while Kamala Harris won Vermont by 32. By that measure, these are the reddest and bluest states. Twenty states (and Washington, DC) have voted the same way in each of the last 10 presidential elections.     Congressional election results are another path to an answer. Most states have a combination of Republican and Democratic representation in the House. The largest single-party congressional delegations are Massachusetts (Democratic, with two Senators and nine Representatives) and Oklahoma (Republican, with two Senators and five Representatives).  Forty-six states have either two Republicans or two Democrats in the Senate, meaning four (Maine, Pennsylvania, Vermont, Wisconsin) have either one of each or an Independent in the mix.  Join the journey Data behind the news Last Thursday, the Senate passed a bipartisan housing legislation package with the aim of lowering costs. The House is yet to vote on the legislation. In the meantime, learn more about the trends in housing affordability.   Thousands of Transportation Security Administration (TSA) workers, along with other government employees, have missed their first paycheck due to the Department of Homeland Security currently being shut down. Here’s more on what the TSA does.   The FBI is investigating the shooting at Virginia’s Old Dominion University that killed one person as an act of terrorism. It is also investigating an attack at a Michigan synagogue but said it didn’t have enough evidence yet to call it an act of terror. Learn more about domestic terrorism in this article from our archives. The weekly fact quiz is ready for you to test yourself.    One last fact Last year, the top five oil exporters to the US were:   Canada (57%)     Mexico (6%)     Saudi Arabia (4%)      Iraq (3%)     Brazil (3%)   The remaining 27% came from 63 other countries/territories/other areas. Search the chart for other countries here.