FARMERSBURG, Ind. (WTWO/WAWV)— The folks at SmartAsset have released a new study on how popular sports betting is in each state, landing Indiana at 14 and Illinois at 3.
Taxpayers are required to pay their regular income tax rate on net winnings in the United States. According to SmartAsset, states collected $2.6 billion in taxes in 2024, which is a 29% increase in the state. Due to this, many states have been loosening their sports-betting laws and more are considering similar options. SmartAsset has used these taxes on wins to serve as a proxy and calculate overall sports-betting activity across 43 states.
With this, Illinois ranked third behind New York and Pennsylvania. Illinois collected $178.026 million last year, accounting for .27% of all state tax revenue, which is a 28.16% increase. Sports betting taxes paid per capita in Illinois are $14.01. To put that in perspective, New York collected $912.874 million last year and only Montana’s sports gambling taxes made up over 1% of its tax revenue, with 1.35%.
Indiana came in at 14 with only $43.488 million, which is only .17% of all state tax revenue. Sports betting in Indiana is only $6.28 in taxes paid per capita. Indiana did see a 7.45% increase in sports betting as well.
Indiana’s other neighboring states all came in near the top as well, with Ohio coming in at 4 and Kentucky at 11. Michigan was a bit further down the list, coming in at 22. More than 30% of states surprisingly were found to have a declining amount of sports betting, with West Virginia leading with a 35.4% loss. New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Delaware, Texas, North Dakota, Minnesota, Washington, Oklahoma, South Dakota, and Nebraska are all listed at lower numbers.
