New York is scoring massive — on-line sports activities betting is the state’s new money cow.
Sports activities wagering is now the second greatest income generator for New York State coffers from the gaming trade, exceeding $1 billion a 12 months in taxes and trailing solely the lottery, a brand new report discovered.
The soar in gaming revenues the previous few years is completely attributable to cellular sports activities betting, whereas different types of playing have declined or are flat, in accordance the analyisis launched Wednesday by state Comptroller Tom DiNapoli
“Over the previous decade, New York’s gaming revenues have grown by 32.7 p.c, pushed virtually completely by the expansion in collections from cellular sports activities wagering since its legalization in 2022. In distinction, revenues from all different types of gaming have collectively slipped, declining by 0.8 p.c,” the report stated.
Collections from the 51% tax on gross gaming income from sports activities betting elevated 78% between fiscal 12 months 2023 ($727.4 million) and financial 12 months 2026 ($1.3 billion).
A staggering $91.2 billion in cellular sports activities bets have been positioned — producing $8.3 billion in tax income to state — because the launch in January 2022.
There have been about 7.2 million distinctive cellular sports activities wagering accounts in New York final 12 months, principally bettors between the ages of 21 and 44.
Greater than 2 million transactions have been positioned on the cellular sports activities wagering platforms in 2025, with the common quantity wagered $3,500.
5 sports activities accounted for over 90 p.c of all cellular sports activities bets, led by basketball, soccer, baseball, tennis and soccer.
Not surprisingly, positioned bets improve in the course of the Main League Baseball World Collection, the Nationwide Soccer League Tremendous Bowl and the Nationwide Collegiate Athletic Affiliation Basketball Match (“March Insanity”).
Whereas the bookie normally wins, the Knicks basketball championship run made bettors winners, too.
The Knicks have been thought-about underdogs in opposition to the San Antonio Spurs within the finals, and plenty of believers put their dough behind New York’s crew.
“Throughout these two weeks (the finals), over $1 billion in cellular sports activities wagers have been made, however gross gaming income throughout this time mirrored a web lack of $14.4 million, a consequence of successful wagers paid out exceeding wagers obtained,” the report stated.
“Whereas it has develop into the second-largest income from gaming, cellular sports activities wagering has exhibited volatility. The 2026 NBA Finals demonstrated how giant successful wagers related to excessive odds can sharply scale back gross gaming revenues and, in flip, the collections from the tax on these revenues.”
There are six several types of playing in New York: horse racing, the lottery, slot machines or video lottery terminals (VLTs), commerical and tribal casinos , cellular and retail sports activities betting and interactive fantasy sports activities.
The state collected over $5.1 billion from lottery gross sales and taxes on different playing, $1.3 billion, or 33%, greater than ten years earlier.
Lottery video games that embrace Powerball accounted for 47.3%, or almost half of all playing revenues final 12 months.
The expansion of cellular sports activities betting has come on the expense of in person-sports wagering within the state’s industrial casinos (Rivers, Del Lago, Tioga Downs and Resorts World Catskills), that are taxed at a considerably decrease 10% fee.
Gaming income from in-person sports activities wagering totaled $69 million since 2019, lower than 1% of the entire from cellular sports activities wagering.
In the meantime, the report highlighted the emergence of the much less regulated however ballooning prediction markets, with most buying and selling centered on sporting occasions.
“Whether or not this exercise has had an influence on cellular sports activities wagering within the state is presently unknown. Nevertheless, its progress might pose a danger to the revenues the State collects from cellular sports activities wagering,” DiNapoli’s report stated.
Kalshi and Polymarket are the main prediction betting platforms with wagers primarily based on the result of real-world occasions, together with sporting occasions.
The report stated litigation figuring out whether or not the state and the federal authorities can regulate prediction markets will decide future state revenues.
