Tennessee Collected $8.8M In Taxes On $392.7M In Sports Wagers In March
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The Center Square [By Jon Styf] –
Tennessee collected $8.8 million in taxes on sports wagering in March on $392.7 million in wagers. The tax collections were the third highest since online sports wagering began in Tennessee in November 2020 and coincided with the NCAA basketball tournament.
The state’s sportsbooks paid out $347.2 million on March wagers and had an adjusted gross income of $43.7 million. The Tennessee Sports Wagering Advisory Council does not release sportsbook-specific numbers.
The numbers were released as the Tennessee Legislature is moving a bill to adjust the state’s taxing process for sports gambling. Last week, the Senate approved a bill to tax all gross wagers 2% instead of the current 20% tax on sportsbooks’ adjusted gross income.
If the rule wasn’t changed, SWAC would have fined and required true-up payments from the sportsbooks which failed to meet a previous 10% requirement on adjusted gross income, which ensured the state received a higher amount of taxes each month.
Last year, nine of the 11 active Tennessee sportsbooks failed to hit the 10% hold requirement.
The House is currently looking at a version of the bill that would tax sportsbooks at 1.85% on all gross wagers.
In 2022, the sportsbooks paid $68 million in privilege tax. Under the 2% plan, they would have paid $75 million. Under the House plan, that would have been $70 million.
The bill also allows sportsbooks to use data that isn’t official league data for in-play wagers – a requirement only Tennessee had previously – and removes the word “advisory” from the council’s name.
About the Author: Jon Styf, The Center Square Staff Reporter – Jon Styf is an award-winning editor and reporter who has worked in Illinois, Texas, Wisconsin, Florida and Michigan in local newsrooms over the past 20 years, working for Shaw Media, Hearst and several other companies. Follow Jon on Twitter @JonStyf.
