Tennessee Changing Sports Betting Tax Law

Because of a bill that Gov. Bill Lee signed into law, sports betting businesses in Tennessee will soon be taxed on the money bettors wager rather than the revenue the businesses take in. The 20 percent gross gaming revenue tax on sports betting in Tennessee will be replaced by a 1.85 percent handle tax starting in July. Gross gaming revenue is the category of income previously levied by legal betting states. It is one of several modifications to sports betting laws that were overwhelmingly approved by lawmakers this year under SB 475. The only state in the union to base taxes on handle will be Tennessee. This adjustment was brought about by the fact that this state was the only one to attempt a minimum hold requirement.

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There will no longer be a need for Tennessee sportsbooks to keep at least 10% of handle each month, which has led to thousands of dollars in fines and less tax income than the state had anticipated. According to a fiscal note attached to the measure, nine of Tennessee’s 11 sportsbooks paid the state $25,000 for failing to meet the minimum hold.

Based on conservative calculations, the state would have received an additional $15 million since sports betting was introduced in November 2020 if the handling tax had been in place. Even so, it would still be around $11 million less if operators had satisfied the minimum hold requirement under the first tax method.

Over the years, handle tax ideas have surfaced in legislators in West Virginia, Kentucky, and Minnesota. Each time, the measure failed. The federal 0.25 percent excise tax, which was in place even before states other than Nevada legalized sports betting in 2018, is the only handling tax in operation in the nation.

Adam Hoffer, Director of Excise Tax Policy at the Tax Foundation, said to the media that the tax was “quite basic and direct, pretty easy to administer, and doesn’t rely on a lot of things that could influence how much the state actually receives.”

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