Tennessee Sees Record $405M In Sports Gambling In October

Image Credit: PlayTenn.com & Thomas R Machnitzki / CC

The Center Square [By Jon Styf] –

Tennessee saw a record $405.3 million in sports gambling wagers in October, according to numbers released on Thursday afternoon.

The previous high was $386 million in January.

With that, the state collected $6.99 million in taxes, the second-highest amount on record after collecting $8.7 million in taxes for September wagers.

Tennessee has now seen more than $6 billion in wagers since it opened for online sports gaming in November 2020 with $94.4 million in taxes collected over that span.

Tennessee collects 20% of the industry’s net operator revenue in taxes. Of the sports gambling taxes, 80% of the taxes collected from sports gambling goes to education, 15% goes to the state for distribution to local governments and 5% goes toward mental health programs.

The council expected the tax numbers to rise after the committee issued a memo to sportsbooks this summer stating that, starting July 1, it would be creating new standards for how earnings are reported and how the taxes are calculated.

The June 15 memo defined how sportsbooks need to calculate profit numbers, including how it pertains to promotional bets given to gamblers as deposit bonuses, odds boosts, free bets and more.

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.