Illinois Rakes In Tax Revenues From Sports Betting

Published on February 9th, 2021 9:55 am EST
Written By: Dave Manuel


Do you want to know why states like Texas, California and Florida are scrambling to legalize sports betting within their state borders?

Tax revenues.

In this day and age, tax revenues are harder and harder for states to come by.

New, lucrative tax revenue streams? Forget about it.

This is the reason why states are suddenly lining up to offer legal sports betting. Americans love to bet, and states can realize massive new streams of revenue from the practice.

Case in point: the state of Illinois.

Illinois just started offering legal sports betting less than a year ago, so this was the first year that they were able to offer betting on the Super Bowl.

The numbers are in, and the state realized total revenues of $1,148,890, just from the Super Bowl alone.

Here was a breakdown of their Super Bowl numbers:

Online Handle, $42,756,647
Retail Handle, $2,853,886
Total Handle, $45,610,513

AGR: $7,659,269

State Tax Revenue: $1,148,890

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At the end of the day, money talks and legal sports betting will be a boon for US states.

One eye-popping stat from the numbers listed above is the amount of online betting relative to brick-and-mortar wagers.

While there are certainly Coronavirus-related reasons for betting online vs betting in person, most people feel that the online betting process is more private and less stressful, especially when placing larger wagers.