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Hoosiers Bet $147 Million On Sports In November

Brandon Smith
/
IPB News

The state is collecting roughly what it expected in gambling taxes through the first three months of legalized sports betting. 

Hoosiers placed $147 million in sports bets in November – the most of any month so far. It’s also the first month that all of the state’s current sports wagering providers – both in-person and online – were fully up and running.

Casino Association of Indiana President Matt Bell says the early revenue numbers make sense.

“There’s a lot of excitement right now – we’re in the peak season for sports wagering, which is football season,” Bell says.

Bell says he also expects the excitement to die down – look for sports betting revenue to “normalize,” he says.

Still, Indiana has collected about $2.7 million in taxes from sports bets through its first three months. That puts it on target for about nine million this fiscal year, which is almost exactly what state fiscal analysts predicted.

Contact Brandon at bsmith@ipbs.org or follow him on Twitter at @brandonjsmith5.

Brandon Smith is excited to be working for public radio in Indiana. He has previously worked in public radio as a reporter and anchor in mid-Missouri for KBIA Radio out of Columbia. Prior to that, he worked for WSPY Radio in Plano, Illinois as a show host, reporter, producer and anchor. His first job in radio was in another state capitol, in Jefferson City, Missouri, as a reporter for three radio stations around Missouri. Brandon graduated from the University of Missouri-Columbia with a Bachelor of Journalism in 2010, with minors in political science and history. He was born and raised in Chicago.