Legal Sports Betting Numbers

Nevada was the only state with legal sports betting for many years. In addition to being the first state to legalize mobile sports betting in 2010, Nevada’s casinos have welcomed sports bettors since 1949. However, everything changed in May of 2018 when the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act of 1992—which forbade sports betting outside of Nevada—was invalidated by the U.S. Supreme Court. Legal sports betting is now possible in every state in the United States thanks to a Supreme Court decision that granted states the authority to do so. Most states have now authorized sports betting since that time. One month following the Supreme Court’s ruling, Delaware became the first state outside of Nevada to legalize sports betting in person.

There are 38 states that allow sports betting as of July 2024. In addition to Puerto Rico and Washington, D.C., a total of thirty states offer online sports betting, while twenty-two states have tribal gaming compacts that allow sports betting. Just 12 states, including Texas and California, the two most populous states in the country, do not allow legal sports betting. Idaho, Utah, Minnesota, Missouri, South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Oklahoma, Alaska, and Hawaii are the remaining states. States have different legal betting ages for sports. In most places, the minimum age to wager on sports online is 21, but in some, it is as low as 18.

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Several of the twelve states that do not yet have legal sports betting are moving closer to doing so. Georgia and Minnesota may be the next states to legalize sports betting after they came close to doing so in 2024. After 340,000 individuals signed a petition to add sports betting to the ballot in November 2024, there is also a lot of pressure in Missouri to make sports betting legal.

Revenue from sports betting has increased along with the nation’s sports betting spread and the number of persons signing up for online sportsbooks. In 2023, Americans bet a record $119.84 billion on sports, a 27.5% increase over 2022. In 2023, one in five adult Americans reported having wagered on sports in the previous year. Even though sports betting has grown in popularity in the US, many people still watch sports for enjoyment purposes without placing a wager. 83% of those who watch sports at least somewhat carefully claim that betting is not a factor in their decision to do so, 12% see it as a small factor, and 4% see it as a large factor.

States rely on sports betting to generate millions of tax money annually. Individuals must pay taxes on any winnings, and sportsbooks are taxed on their revenue (state-specific tax rates apply). Sports betting, which includes wagers on horse races, brought in over $758 million in total tax income in the fourth quarter of 2023 alone—a 26% rise over the same period in 2022. New York topped all other states, nearly five times that of the next closest state (Pennsylvania). States reinvest sports betting tax income into government and educational initiatives. A small portion of the proceeds is also used by several states to fight problem gambling, which is becoming more prevalent as sports betting gets more popular.Check out the latest sports betting odds at Prime Sports.