Expanded Legal Betting Access Leads to Record Year

As legal sports betting becomes more prevalent across the United States, the industry continues to break revenue records.

Commercial sports betting revenue hit a new all-time high of $7.5 billion in 2022 — a whopping 72.7% increase from 2021’s record of $4.3 billion — per data from the American Gaming Association.

Legal sportsbooks handled $93.2 billion in bets last year — another record and a 61.1% increase over 2021’s handle. When the tribal sports betting handle is reported later this year, that number will likely surpass the $100 billion mark.

Sports Betting

| by Doug Greenberg

U.S. Sportsbooks Get Huge Boost From Super Bowl

Several American sportsbooks reported milestones as a result of the increased traffic.

February 13, 2023

The industry got a boost from the additions of a legal betting market in Kansas and the launch of mobile betting in Louisiana, Maryland, and New York — the latter led all individual states with $1.4 billion in revenue last year.

Three other states passed the half-billion mark: Illinois ($795M), New Jersey ($763M), and Pennsylvania ($597M). All but two markets increased their handles last year: Delaware (-32.3%) and Mississippi (-9.2%).

Since PASPA was struck down in May 2018, American bettors have placed $190.3 billion in wagers, creating $14.6 billion in sports betting revenue and $3 billion in state and federal taxes.