When it comes to tax revenue in a sports betting state, the best words for supporters to hear is we are “exceeding projections.” Welcome to Kentucky. Governor Andy Beshear announced December 7 that the first two months brought in almost $8 million in tax dollars.
“It is an incredible start, and if it continues, we will significantly exceed the $23 million in (annual) projected revenue from sports wagering,” he said.
Optimists are betting that will happen.
And if so, look for more money to flow to a trio of pre-determined accounts: oversight of the sports betting department, a problem gambling fund, and the commonwealth public pension system.
Kentucky launched sports betting in retail locations in early September just as the NFL season got underway. College football and the MLB playoffs also fell within the two month period. Mobile wagers followed in late September.
Kentucky raked in $656 million in wagers to date, Beshear said. Of that, bettors wagered $26.8 million at in-person sportsbooks, the rest through mobile phones and other digital means.
“Remember, before we legalized sports betting, this money was going to other states or the betting was being done illegally,” the governor told the Associated Press.
Efforts to legalize sports betting died in the legislature for a number of years. To be sure, the push still has its share of critics concerned that such wagering would increase problem gambling in Kentucky.
David Walls, executive director of The Family Foundation, called it an “expansion of predatory gambling,” a “lose-lose situation for Kentuckians, especially for children and the vulnerable.”
