The NFL season arrived Thursday night as the defending Super Bowl champion Tampa Bay Buccaneers played America’s team, the Dallas Cowboys.
And as the state of Tennessee prepares for its first full football season with legalized sports gambling, there is little debate about the impact of the 10-month-old state law.
It’s win-win-win.
Through the first half of 2021, more than $1 billion was legally wagered in Tennessee, which equates to roughly $161 wagered per person through the first six months of the year, according to TnBets.com.
That created almost $20 million in tax revenue for the state in 2021 through June. (Tennessee collects 20% of the revenue its online gambling partners collect. For example, if $1 billion is wagered and online betting partners collect $550 million, that means they paid out $450 million to Tennessee bettors. Hence, the partners had $100 million in revenue, and the taxed return to the state is $20 million.)