iGaming Journalist & Crypto Casino Analyst
Legal US sports betting is no longer an experiment. In calendar year 2025, regulated American sportsbooks accepted $166.94 billion in wagers, held $16.96 billion in gross gaming revenue, and sent $3.71 billion to state treasuries. This page is a state-by-state data reference for that market: handle, gross gaming revenue, hold percentage, tax revenue, per-capita wagering, and effective tax rates for the ten largest jurisdictions, plus the structural reasons those numbers differ so wildly from one state line to the next.
Key Findings
US sports betting handle reached $166.94 billion in 2025, up 11.0% year over year, while operator revenue grew 22.8% to $16.96 billion as the national hold rate climbed to roughly 10.15%. State tax collections jumped 32.4% to $3.71 billion. New York alone produced $26.33 billion in handle and $1.30 billion in tax. The top ten states accounted for roughly 69% of all wagers. Effective tax rates ranged from about 6.8% of revenue in Nevada to 51% in New York.
US Sports Betting by State: The 2025 Data Table
The table below ranks the ten largest legal sports betting markets in the United States by total 2025 handle. "Handle" is the total amount wagered; "GGR" (gross gaming revenue) is what sportsbooks kept after paying winning bets; "hold" is GGR divided by handle. State tax revenue reflects money actually remitted to the state under each jurisdiction's rate structure.
| Rank | State | 2025 Handle | GGR | Avg Hold | State Tax Revenue | Population | Live Since |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | New York | $26.33B | $2.55B | 9.68% | $1.30B | 20.1M | 2022 |
| 2 | Illinois | $15.53B | $2.26B | 14.52% | $534.27M | 12.8M | 2020 |
| 3 | New Jersey | $12.16B | $1.18B | 9.68% | $167.75M | 9.7M | 2018 |
| 4 | Ohio | $10.30B | $1.04B | 10.14% | $208.89M | 12.0M | 2023 |
| 5 | Arizona | $9.13B | $622.82M | 6.82% | $53.75M | 7.8M | 2021 |
| 6 | Pennsylvania | $8.86B | $762.44M | 8.61% | $206.03M | 13.2M | 2018 |
| 7 | Massachusetts | $8.53B | $843.21M | 9.89% | $167.95M | 7.2M | 2023 |
| 8 | Nevada | $8.07B | $601.42M | 7.45% | $40.60M | 3.3M | 1949 (online 2010) |
| 9 | Virginia | $7.68B | $787.31M | 10.25% | $118.20M | 8.9M | 2021 |
| 10 | North Carolina | $7.27B | $737.65M | 10.14% | $132.78M | 11.3M | 2024 |
Combined, these ten states processed more than $113.87 billion in handle — roughly 69% of every dollar legally wagered on sport in America last year. The remaining 29 or so jurisdictions split the other 31%.
Handle Per Capita: A Fairer Way to Rank States
Raw handle rewards population. Dividing handle by residents produces a very different leaderboard and is the single most useful metric for anyone comparing how deeply betting has penetrated a given market. The figures below are derived from the handle and population columns above.
| State | 2025 Handle | Population | Handle Per Resident | Tax Per Resident |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nevada | $8.07B | 3.3M | $2,445 | $12.30 |
| New York | $26.33B | 20.1M | $1,310 | $64.68 |
| New Jersey | $12.16B | 9.7M | $1,254 | $17.29 |
| Illinois | $15.53B | 12.8M | $1,213 | $41.74 |
| Massachusetts | $8.53B | 7.2M | $1,185 | $23.33 |
| Arizona | $9.13B | 7.8M | $1,171 | $6.89 |
| Ohio | $10.30B | 12.0M | $858 | $17.41 |
| Virginia | $7.68B | 8.9M | $863 | $13.28 |
| Pennsylvania | $8.86B | 13.2M | $671 | $15.61 |
| North Carolina | $7.27B | 11.3M | $643 | $11.75 |
Nevada is the obvious outlier, and the reason is tourism: Las Vegas visitors wager in Nevada without living there, so the denominator understates the true betting population. Strip Nevada out and New York, New Jersey, and Illinois cluster tightly around $1,200–$1,300 per resident, which is a reasonable estimate of what a mature, fully mobile market produces. North Carolina, which only launched mobile wagering in March 2024, sits at $643 — roughly half the mature-market rate, and a useful benchmark for how much runway a young market still has.
Hold Percentage: Why Illinois Keeps 50% More Than Arizona
Hold is the percentage of handle that sportsbooks retain. Nationally it averaged about 10.15% in 2025, up from single digits in the early post-PASPA years. But the state-level spread in the table above is enormous: Illinois held 14.52% while Arizona held just 6.82%. That is not luck. Three structural factors explain nearly all of it.
1. Parlay Mix
Straight single-game bets typically carry a theoretical hold of 4–5%. Same-game parlays and multi-leg parlays compound the margin on each leg and routinely hold 15–30%. A state whose bettors favor parlays will post a dramatically higher hold than one dominated by straight sides and totals. Operator-level data shows this clearly: FanDuel has historically carried a richer parlay mix and correspondingly higher hold than DraftKings, though that gap narrowed through 2025 as DraftKings improved its own parlay attachment.
2. Promotional Deduction Rules
Some states let operators deduct the cost of free bets and bonuses before calculating taxable revenue; others do not. Where promo deductions are generous, reported GGR — and therefore reported hold — is suppressed. Arizona's low hold partly reflects an aggressive promotional environment. Anyone comparing states on hold alone should check the deduction rule first, because it is an accounting artifact as much as a betting-behaviour signal.
3. Sport Mix and Sharpness
NFL sides and totals draw the sharpest money and hold the least. NBA player props, college football parlays, and soccer accumulators hold far more. States with a heavier recreational skew and fewer professional bettors post higher hold. If you want to understand the mechanics behind these margins before you place a wager, our betting fundamentals guide walks through how sportsbook pricing and vig actually work.
Tax Rates and Effective Tax Burden
Statutory sports betting tax rates in the United States range from 6.75% in Nevada and Iowa to 51% in New York, New Hampshire, and Rhode Island. The spread is wider than in almost any other regulated consumer industry, and it drives the divergence between the GGR column and the tax column in our main table.
| State | Tax Structure on Online GGR | 2025 GGR | 2025 Tax | Effective Rate |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| New York | 51% flat | $2.55B | $1.30B | 51.0% |
| Illinois | Progressive 20–40% + per-wager fee | $2.26B | $534.27M | 23.6% |
| Ohio | 20% flat | $1.04B | $208.89M | 20.1% |
| Massachusetts | 20% online | $843.21M | $167.95M | 19.9% |
| Pennsylvania | 36% flat | $762.44M | $206.03M | 27.0% |
| Virginia | 15% flat | $787.31M | $118.20M | 15.0% |
| North Carolina | 18% flat | $737.65M | $132.78M | 18.0% |
| New Jersey | 13% online / 8.5% retail | $1.18B | $167.75M | 14.2% |
| Arizona | 10% online | $622.82M | $53.75M | 8.6% |
| Nevada | 6.75% flat | $601.42M | $40.60M | 6.8% |
Two observations matter for anyone citing this data. First, effective rates frequently sit below the statutory rate because of promotional deductions and, in progressive systems, because only the largest operators reach the top bracket. Illinois is the clearest case: a headline structure running to 40% produced a 23.6% effective burden across the market. Second, New York's effective rate matches its statutory rate almost exactly — a consequence of New York not permitting promotional deductions.
Illinois: The Per-Wager Fee Experiment
Illinois moved from a flat 15% rate to a graduated 20–40% structure in 2024, then layered a per-wager excise fee on top effective July 2025. That fee is charged per accepted bet regardless of size, which taxes low-stake, high-frequency wagering disproportionately. The policy result was immediate: Illinois collected $57 million in March 2026 alone, 64% higher than March 2025. The behavioural result is still being measured, but operators have publicly responded by adding minimum bet sizes and per-bet surcharges in the state — the first time US bettors have faced an explicit, itemised state levy on individual wagers.
Cumulative Tax Revenue Since PASPA Fell
The Supreme Court struck down the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act in May 2018. In the years since, states have collected roughly $9.3 billion in sports betting tax revenue. The distribution is extraordinarily concentrated.
- New York — approximately $3.3 billion since June 2019, despite launching mobile only in January 2022
- Illinois — $844.5 million
- Pennsylvania — $758.9 million
- New Jersey — $657 million on $5.1 billion of gross sportsbook revenue since June 2018
- Nevada — $194.9 million, despite being the oldest legal market in the country
Those five states account for roughly $5.8 billion of the $9.3 billion national total — about 62%. New York's share alone is more than a third of every sports betting tax dollar ever collected in the United States, which is entirely a function of the 51% rate rather than superior volume: New York's 2025 handle was 1.7x Illinois's, but its tax take was 2.4x.
Nevada's position is the instructive counterexample. It has been taking legal sports bets since 1949 and still generated only $40.6 million in 2025 tax, less than a quarter of what Ohio produced in its third year of operation. A 6.75% rate applied to a 7.45% hold simply does not generate meaningful public revenue at any plausible volume.
Market Structure: Online Versus Retail
Approximately 95% of all US sports betting handle is now placed online. In the largest markets the figure is higher still. New York recorded $26.28 billion of online handle against $54.0 million retail — 99.8% digital, from just four retail sportsbooks statewide. Illinois is 98%+ online despite operating 13 retail sportsbooks, several attached to major venues including Wrigley Field.
Duopoly is the other defining structural feature. In New York, FanDuel holds roughly 35% market share and DraftKings roughly 33% — together more than two-thirds of the state. In Illinois the concentration is even sharper, with FanDuel at roughly 49% and DraftKings at roughly 31%, leaving eight other licensed operators to divide the remaining fifth. Anyone comparing operators across states will find the same two names at the top in nearly every jurisdiction; our US sports betting guide tracks which books are licensed where.
Where the Market Goes Next
As of July 2026, 39 US jurisdictions run legal sports betting operations, roughly 31 of them with statewide online wagering. California, Texas, Georgia, and Florida's mobile market remain the largest pieces of unclaimed territory; California and Texas alone represent close to 70 million residents. Applying the mature-market rate of roughly $1,200 in annual handle per resident implies those two states would add something in the order of $80 billion of handle to the national total — a nearly 50% expansion of the current market.
The second live variable is prediction markets. Federally regulated event contracts now offer sports-outcome trading in states without legal sportsbooks, operating outside state gaming tax regimes entirely. Industry analysts flagged them as a drag on regulated operator growth during 2025, and their treatment is the most consequential unresolved regulatory question in the sector. Bettors weighing where to place action across these options can compare current offers on our sportsbook promotions page.
Methodology
State-level handle, gross gaming revenue, hold percentage, tax revenue, population, and launch year for the top ten markets were compiled from RG.org's 2025 state rankings dataset, which aggregates monthly filings published by each state's gaming regulator. National totals for handle, revenue, and tax were taken from the American Gaming Association's commercial gaming revenue tracking and its 2026 State of the States report. Cumulative post-PASPA tax figures come from Tax Foundation analysis and state-level reporting.
Per-capita figures and effective tax rates in this article are our own calculations, derived by dividing published handle and tax figures by the population and GGR figures in the same dataset. They are arithmetic derivations of published data, not independent estimates. Effective tax rate is calculated as reported state tax revenue divided by reported gross gaming revenue for the same period; it will differ from statutory rates wherever promotional deductions, progressive brackets, or split online/retail rates apply.
Two caveats apply to any cross-state comparison. First, states define "revenue" differently — some report gross gaming revenue, others adjusted gross receipts net of promotional credits — so hold percentages are not perfectly like-for-like. Second, figures described as 2025 totals reflect the states' own fiscal reporting calendars, which do not all align to the calendar year. Small discrepancies between our table totals and headline national figures are attributable to these definitional differences and to the roughly 29 smaller jurisdictions not itemised here.
Frequently Asked Questions
Which state has the largest sports betting market in the US?
New York, by a wide margin. It recorded $26.33 billion in handle during 2025 — roughly 70% more than second-place Illinois at $15.53 billion — and generated $1.30 billion in state tax revenue, more than double any other state. Its scale reflects a population of 20.1 million, eleven professional franchises across the major leagues, and a market that is 99.8% mobile.
How much tax revenue does US sports betting generate?
States collected $3.71 billion in sports betting taxes during 2025, a 32.4% increase over 2024. Cumulatively, states have taken in approximately $9.3 billion since the Supreme Court struck down PASPA in May 2018. New York accounts for roughly $3.3 billion of that cumulative total on its own.
What is a typical sportsbook hold percentage?
The national average hold was approximately 10.15% in 2025, meaning sportsbooks kept about $10.15 of every $100 wagered. State-level results ranged from 6.82% in Arizona to 14.52% in Illinois. The variation is driven mainly by parlay mix, promotional deduction rules, and how sharp the local betting population is.
Which state taxes sports betting the most?
New York, New Hampshire, and Rhode Island all apply a 51% rate to online gross gaming revenue, the highest in the country. At the other end, Nevada and Iowa tax at 6.75%. Illinois operates the most complex structure: a progressive 20–40% rate on GGR plus a per-wager excise fee introduced in July 2025.
How many US states have legal sports betting?
As of July 2026, 39 US jurisdictions permit legal sports betting in some form, with roughly 31 offering statewide online wagering. California, Texas, and Georgia remain the largest states without a legal market, and Florida's mobile offering operates under a distinct tribal compact structure.
Sources
- American Gaming Association — State of the States 2026
- American Gaming Association — Commercial Gaming Revenue Tracker
- RG.org — The 10 Largest U.S. Sports Betting Markets of 2025
- RG.org — U.S. Sports Betting Statistics
- Tax Foundation — Online Sports Betting Taxes by State
- Legal Sports Report — Sports Betting Revenue Tracker
- Sports Handle — US Sports Betting Revenue and Tax Database
Cite This Article
If you use data from this article, please link back to https://www.deucescracked.com/blog/us-sports-betting-state-handle-tax-data. Suggested citation: DeucesCracked Editorial, "US Sports Betting by State: 2025 Handle & Tax Data," DeucesCracked, August 2026. More reference data is available in our research archive, and market-level coverage lives on our sports betting hub.
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