TN Collected $4.9M Of Taxes On $206M In Online Sports Wagering In August
Image Credit: PlayTenn.com & Thomas R Machnitzki / CC
The Center Square [By Jon Styf] –
Tennessee collected $4.9 million in sports gambling taxes in August, up more than $1 million from July, according to numbers released by the state’s Sports Wagering Advisory Committee.
The funds came from nearly $206 million of wagering with sports gambling sites from the state’s 12 online sports books making $24.4 million in adjusted gross income during the month.
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Those numbers typically rise during football season. In 2021, the state had $144.5 million in wagers in both July and August before $257.3 million in wagers were placed in September.
But the taxes collected were just $2.0 million in August 2021 and $3.3 million last September.
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.
Sports wagering has grown in the state since it began in November 2020 with $131 million in wagers and $2.3 million in taxes collected.
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.
Call me a prude, but I don’t care….I’m right and correct. The lottery and sports gambling laws passed by our state legislature were predictably bad laws, bad for families, bad for addictions and bad for crime, and now the chickens are coming home to roost. State sanctioned lotteries and gambling are still wrong and immoral, and just because the government does it doesn’t make it right! And, just because, you may play every so often, again, doesn’t make it right. The passage of these legislative agenda’s was all about money and greed! Unfortunately, our legislators took the bait and the citizens of Tennessee, our peace, our sanctity, our families – are the real LOSERS! Has anyone noticed the crime rates going up, gambling will do that! Has anyone noticed all the “FREE” first bet advertising clogging up the airways? Strange but true….drug pushers do the very same thing to their customers or addicts! Its shameful that our state legislature took a bite of this apple, we’ll all suffer the results. And, all that money stacked in the state’s coffers? What are the taxpayers getting out of it? A ‘gambling hotline’ with more government bureaucrats on the tax payer dole with pay and cushy state benefits including insurance and retirement, telling legislators how many 1-800 calls they took to justify their existence, really? So sad! I’m no ‘johnny come lately’, all three of my county’s, state representatives and state senator, got an earful from me when they were considering all these trash pieces of legislation (lottery and state sanctioned gambling) over the years. I begged them to vote no. But, alas, I can tell them “I told you so!”, the next time I see them….in fact, they are reading this now, so there you go!
All is well in Wonderland with all this gambling tax money coming in. What they won’t tell you is all the cost of gambling!! Increase in social services, Crime, Drugs, Broken homes and lives. When the books are balanced this Gambling tax money is gone and a deficit of red ink occurs. This won’t be told by any politician or LIVE at 5 news.