Mobile sports bets booming in some states as others shy away
The stakes are higher in Ohio this year for March Madness — and not just because it’s a regional host for the first round of the men’s NCAA basketball tournament.
For the first time, Ohio sports fans can click on a mobile app or tap into kiosks at bars, restaurants or grocery stores and legally bet on the famed tournament.
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Kansas, Massachusetts and Maryland also are new additions to the world of online sports betting since the NCAA tournament last tipped off. A total of 33 states and the District of Columbia now offer at least some form of sports wagering — each scrambling for shares of a multibillion-dollar enterprise that has rapidly expanded after the U.S. Supreme Court allowed it nearly five years ago.
Ohio got off to a booming start when it launched sports betting in January. In its first month, Ohio bettors wagered more than $1.1 billion, generating more than $20 million in state tax revenue. That nearly tripled the revenue amount that legislative analysts had projected for the entire first six months of operation. But no one’s blaming them for missing the mark.
“They couldn’t know how big of a market we were going to have on day one,” said Jessica Franks, communications director at the Ohio Casino Control Commission.
Whereas some states started with limited in-person sports betting and gradually added mobile apps, Ohio began more aggressively — simultaneously launching numerous mobile options and retail locations. Republican Gov. Mike DeWine is now proposing to double the tax rate on sports betting.
New York began allowing sports betting in 2019, but only in person at four upstate casinos, limiting the market. Betting boomed when the state began allowing people to make sports bets through cell phones and computers in January 2022. In the first month, more than $1.6 billion was wagered through online sports betting, compared to just $15 million through in-person sports bets at casinos.
New York charges a 51% tax on revenue from mobile sports betting — a far higher rate than other states — with most revenue going to education. Budget officials originally projected that mobile sports betting would generate $357 million in state tax revenue for the 2023 fiscal year, which ends March 31. Bettors have blown that away. Through February, mobile sports betting had generated $661 million of tax revenue for education.
State Sen. Joseph Addabbo Jr., who advocated for sports betting as chair of the Senate Racing, Gaming and Wagering Committee, said even he is amazed at the results.
“There is an appetite, certainly, to do sports betting with a mobile device,” Addabbo said.
