Just two years after the first online sportsbooks went live in Tennessee, the state reports that it has seen more than $400m in sports gambling wagers in a single month.
According to official numbers released by the state, it has broken its previous record of $386m in sports wagers – a record it set in January of this year.
October’s record-breaking $405m in wagers brings the state’s total sports betting wagers to $6bn since the online sportsbooks opened in November 2020.
The state has earned $94.4m in taxes from sportsbooks over the past two years. It also earned $6.9m of those taxes in October 2022 alone – a total of 20% of sportsbooks’ adjusted gross income of $34.8m.
This is the second-highest amount of monthly tax revenue the state has received from sports gaming in a single month – despite bettors only wagering $336.9m in September 2022, sportsbooks reported $43.5m in adjusted gross income, meaning Tennessee brought in a record of $8.7m in taxes that month.
The reason for this disparity lies in the payouts reported – sportsbooks only paid out $290.6m to bettors in September, while it paid out $336.9m in October.
Interestingly, October 2022 does not hold the record for the highest gross payout in the state. One year ago, in October 2021, the state reported $352.5m in payouts, compared to $375.3m in wagers.
The state of Tennessee reports that 80% of the taxes collected from gambling go toward education in the state. Tennessee’s mental health programs receive 5% of taxes from gaming and local governments receive the remaining 15%.
