New York Passes $10B Sports Betting Handle Since January Market Launch

The New York State Gaming Commission has released its sports betting financial report for the week ending on August 28, which showed the sports wagering handle decreased for the first time since the middle of July. However, the state also passed a major sports betting handle milestone.

New York State’s Sports Wagering Handle Passes the $10 Billion Mark

The week ending on August 28 broke the positive upward trend in the state of New York’s sports wagering handle with total wagers of only $194.5 million, down 2.3% from the $200.1 million of the previous week, as reported by The New York State Gaming Commission, the watchdog responsible for regulating sports betting in the state.

However, this small decrease is not so important considering the big picture. Since New York launched its sports betting market back on January 8 this year the total handle has just passed the $10 billion mark with New York residents betting away the colossal $10.3 billion in just 8 months.

This corresponds to a gross gaming revenue of $766.5 million collected since the start of sports betting in the state, which on its part means that the New York state has already raked in taxes amounting to a whopping $390.9 million.

New York Sports Betting Market on Its Way to Exceed Forecasts

The New York state fiscal year starts on April 1 so the forecasts made by the office of the New York governor Kathy Hochul regarding the period from April 1, 2022, to March 31, 2023, have only taken into consideration the results from the first three months since the launch of the sports wagering market in the state and currently seem quite modest.

The governor’s office has stated that they expect the tax revenue for the whole fiscal year ending on March 31, 2023, to be about $357 million. So far sports betting operators have reported gross gaming revenue of $451.9 million. This corresponds to collecting taxes of $230.5 million in only five months since the start of the fiscal year. And this is before the most profitable sports event for sports betting operators, the NFL season, has even started.

New York Has the Highest Tax Rate on Sports Betting Together with New Hampshire

New York is one of the two US states that has the highest tax rate imposed on sports betting gross gaming revenue. The state coffers collect 51%, a rate matched only by New Hampshire. 98% of the collected tax revenue, however, goes to education. It mainly benefits elementary and primary schools but part of it also goes to youth sports programs. The rest of the tax revenue, which is about 2%, is allocated to programs protecting people from gambling harm.