Who is Betting in Sports by Money, State and Capita

With sports betting now legal in most of the US, states have been raking in millions of dollars in tax revenue from this lucrative industry. Although commercial wagering on sports has yet to be legalized in 15 states, it is definitely on the horizon, with legislation either pending or in the works. But how much are people actually betting on sports?

The team at SportingPedia analyzed the sports wagering revenue reports for the past 12 months in the 35 states and the District of Columbia, where the activity has been legalized. Along with the GGR (gross gaming revenue), state regulators publish the total wagered amount placed at sportsbooks or the so-called handle. Over the past 12 months, Americans have wagered roughly $95.7 billion on sports, or $287 per person. As expected, Nevada ranks first with $2,686 wagered on sports per person over the past year in and around Las Vegas.

Methodology

For this map, we looked at the sports betting handle reported over a twelve-month period in each of the states where commercial sports wagering has been legalized and is currently available. We used the latest data published by the official websites of state gambling commissions or other regulatory bodies.

For some states, the period analyzed was the twelve months ending on February 28, while for others, it covered February 2022 through January 2023, as this was the latest data available at the time of writing. For Arizona, however, we looked at figures for 2022, given that the regulator has not yet published data for January and February of this year. It should be noted that while sports betting has been legalized in Maine and Nebraska, it is not yet available. In other states such as New Mexico, North Carolina, North Dakota, Wisconsin and Washington state, betting is allowed only in tribal casinos, where revenues have not been made public. On the map, we grayed out all these states, along with the ones that have no legal betting.

In addition, several states have just launched sports betting, hence, we analyzed handle and revenue data for a few months only. These are Kansas (handle for 6 months), Massachusetts (2 months), and Ohio (1 month). The state population data was extracted from the StatsAmerica website, an initiative of the Indiana Business Research Center at.

 AUTHOR: PAUL KEMP

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