North Carolina became the 27th state in the U.S. to allow online sports wagering when Governor Roy Cooper signed House Bill 347 into law on Wednesday.
Online sports betting will launch next year after the state’s lottery commission releases regulations and an official start date. The Tar Heel state is only the latest to legalize sports betting.
Hours later that same day, and 800 miles north, Vermont Governor Phil Scott signed an online sports betting bill into law, making the Green Mountain State the 28th state to legalize sports wagering.
The gaming game has changed quite a bit in 2023. On New Year’s Day, baseball’s all-time hits leader Pete Rose placed the first legal sports wager in Ohio. Rose’s new hustle is ironic because the Cincinnati Reds legend was permanently banned from baseball in 1989 for gambling on the game while he was manager of the team. (And, true to form, Rose put action on the Reds to win the 2023 World Series.)
With Vermont’s new law, sports betting is now legal in 37 states and Washington, D.C., up from 32 in 2021. (To date, 33 states are operational, while four others have yet to launch their programs.) Mobile sports betting is now legal in 28 states, up from 18 in January 2022. (There are 24 states with operational online sports betting markets currently, while Kentucky, Maine, North Carolina and Vermont are in the process of launching their markets.)
And legalized gambling is paying off for the states that allow it. In 2022, Americans wagered $93.2 billion legally on sports, up 63% year-over-year, according to the American Gaming Association. Sports betting companies generated $7.5 billion off those wagers, up 73% year-over-year.
New York, which launched its mobile sports betting market last year, is number one in sports betting revenue with $1.4 billion in 2022. Illinois is a distant second with $795 million during the same period, and New Jersey is in third place with $763 million.
Casinos across the U.S., excluding tribal properties, generated $60.42 billion in gaming revenue—slots, table games and sports wagering—in 2022, up 14% from the annual record set in 2021.
“Last year was a record-breaking year for the gaming industry,” says Casey Clark, a senior vice president at the American Gaming Association (AGA). “And certainly, the continued expansion and adoption of and maturation of legal sports betting across the country contributed to that.”
The legalization of sports wagering has spread across the country since 2018 when the Supreme Court overturned the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act. PASPA had effectively made sports betting illegal except in Nevada and a few other states. After the ban was struck down, states have been allowed to legalize sports betting and launch their own programs. The industry has been on fire and growing rapidly. The market has grown from seven states in 2018 to 37 (as well as Washington, D.C.) in the last four years.
Clark predicts that the next 12 months will be filled with records as existing state markets mature and new ones are launched. “We’ll see [legislative] action in probably nine or 10 states,” he says.
But don’t expect that many to legalize this year. The political process takes time as bills are introduced and opposed by various legislators. “Each of these markets takes an appropriately measured approach,” he says. The biggest states that still do not allow sports betting are California, Florida, and Texas.
Although a lot needs to happen politically before the big three legalize sports wagering, more states are likely to legalize over the coming years. Here’s where the sports betting map could expand next.
California
In California, voters rejected two competing ballot measures in November 2022 and there was no movement this year. But the fight to legalize sports betting in America’s most populous state is surely not over.
Florida
Florida legalized sports betting in 2021 through a gambling compact with the state’s Seminole Tribe—a deal that was slated to bring $2.5 billion in tax revenue to Florida over five years. But a federal judge overturned the deal, ruling that the plan violated the state’s constitution and federal Indian gambling law. The tribe is appealing the ruling, and the state’s mobile sports betting market is currently in limbo.
Texas
The Texas legislature, which only meets every other year, passed a sports betting bill in the House in May but the Senate did not take it up for a vote. Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick said in a statement he issued on Twitter before the last day of the legislative session that there is little support for sports wagering in the Republican-controlled Senate and lawmakers would not “waste time on bills without overwhelming GOP support.” The issue will be kicked to 2025.
Minnesota
A bill that would give control to a legal sports betting market in Minnesota to Native American tribes failed to pass the Senate last year. But Rep. Zack Stephenson, who sponsored the bill, was optimistic it would pass in 2023. House Speaker Melissa Hortman said during a May press conference days before the end of this year’s legislative session. “I think we’re probably out of time,” Hortman said. The bill can be taken up by lawmakers in 2024.
Missouri
Missouri is almost entirely surrounded by states that have legal sports betting markets, including Arkansas, Illinois, Iowa, and Kansas. State House Majority Leader Jonathan Patterson told the Missouri Independent earlier this year that getting legislation passed is important for the state.
“I would rank it pretty high because of the fact that our citizens obviously want it,” Patterson said. “There also is a revenue component to it. That money can be used for education. I think the importance is high and it does provide meaningful revenue.”
But the legislative session ended in May plagued with filibusters and lawmakers couldn’t get a sports betting bill to Governor Mike Parsons’ desk. A possible ballot measure could be put to voters in 2024.