Online sports betting emerges as NY cash cow generating billions in tax revenue
New York is scoring big — online sports betting is the state’s new cash cow.Sports wagering is now the second biggest revenue generator for New York State coffers from the gaming industry, exceeding $1 billion a year in taxes and trailing only the lottery, a new report found.The jump in gaming revenues the past few years is totally attributable to mobile sports betting, while other forms of gambling have declined or are flat, according the analyisis released Wednesday by state Comptroller Tom DiNapoli“Over the past decade, New York’s gaming revenues have grown by 32.7 percent, driven almost entirely by the growth in collections from mobile sports wagering since its legalization in 2022.
In contrast, revenues from all other forms of gaming have collectively slipped, declining by 0.8 percent,” the report said.Collections from the 51% tax on gross gaming revenue from sports betting increased 78% between fiscal year 2023 ($727.4 million) and fiscal year 2026 ($1.3 billion).A staggering $91.2 billion in mobile sports bets have been placed — generating $8.3 billion in tax revenue to state — since the launch in January 2022.There were about 7.2 million unique mobile sports wagering accounts in New York last year, mostly bettors between the ages of 21 and 44.More than 2 million transactions were placed on the mobile sports wagering platforms in 2025, with the average amount wagered $3,500.Five sports accounted for over 90 percent of all mobile sports bets, led by basketball, football, baseball, tennis and soccer.Not surprisingly, placed bets increase during the Major League Baseball World Series, the National Football League Super Bowl and the National Collegiate Athletic Association Basketball Tournament (“March Madness”).While the bookie usually wins, the Knicks basketball championship run made bettors winners, too.The Knicks were considered underdogs against the San Antonio Spurs in the finals, and many believers put their dough behind New York’s tea...