The first World Cup on American soil since legal betting existed kicks off June 11, and one host state is already angling to skim the wagers.
- State lawmakers want a temporary 10% levy on the revenue books make off World Cup bets, on top of the roughly 19.75% they already hand over
- The tournament runs June 11 to July 19, and MetLife Stadium will stage the final plus seven other games, part of a hosting bill north of $300 million
- More than 30 states now take legal online wagers, a market that did not exist the last time the US hosted, in 1994
The last time soccer’s biggest event came to the United States, in 1994, there was no legal way to bet on it outside Nevada. That has changed completely. When the 2026 tournament kicks off June 11 across 16 cities in the US, Mexico and Canada, it arrives in a country where more than 30 states take legal online wagers, and it drops a month of soccer into a stretch of summer the American betting calendar usually treats as dead air.
The sportsbooks are ready for the flood. At least one state government wants a bigger piece of what they make off it.
New Jersey Wants Its 10 Percent
TRENTON – MetLife Stadium will stage eight tournament games, the July 19 final included. None of that is cheap to pull off. Local estimates put the price tag past $300 million for security, transit and the rest of the machinery an event this size drags in. So state lawmakers went hunting for revenue, and some of it would come straight off the betting action.
The measure, which Paul Sarlo, a Democratic state senator, introduced as S4111, with Assemblyman Michael Venezia carrying the Assembly twin, A4838, would tack a 10% charge, in place only for the tournament, onto the revenue books make off World Cup wagers. That lands on top of the roughly 19.75% New Jersey already pulls from legal wagering. It reaches the full 48-team field and every market attached to it: moneylines, spreads, totals, player props, parlays. The betting charge is one of four levies in the package, sitting beside fees on hotel rooms, Meadowlands-area sales and rides to the stadium.
Here is the wrinkle. That betting charge falls on the books themselves, not on the people placing the bets. Residents stuck with the hotel, sales and ride fees could claim it back later as an income-tax credit. Sportsbooks get no such break. Whether the books simply swallow the 10% or quietly shade their pricing to recover it is the open question, and bettors tend to learn that answer the hard way, in the odds.
It is not law yet, and it may never be. The plan drew pushback almost as soon as it surfaced, its fees timed to the length of the tournament. Rep. Josh Gottheimer, who vice chairs the congressional committee on the event, pressed leaders to drop it, and state legislators piled on. Mikie Sherrill, the governor, had spent last fall vowing to leave the sales tax alone. “That’s exactly what this does,” said Assemblyman Christopher DePhillips. Should the bill pass, the books would write their first checks to Trenton by August 10, long after the trophy is lifted.
A Betting Map That Did Not Exist in 1994
The reason any of this is worth fighting over is how far the American betting map has filled in. Missouri became the newest state to switch on legal online wagering, going live December 1, 2025, and the count now runs past 30 states plus Washington, D.C. For most of the country, betting the tournament will be a couple of taps on a licensed app.
Not everywhere, though. California and Texas are the two biggest markets still without a legal sportsbook, and together with Georgia and Florida they account for close to a third of US adults. A fan in Dallas or Los Angeles who wants to back Argentina or the US men’s team cannot just open FanDuel and do it. Our guide to US sports betting tracks which states are live and which are still holding out.
Where the Untaxed Money Goes
That gap is exactly where the rest of the betting world has moved in. Prediction markets like Kalshi operate in every US state under federal oversight, and they are listing tradable contracts on World Cup results. No state sportsbook license, no state betting tax, and in the Garden State, no extra 10% riding on top. To a bettor weighing cost, a federally regulated contract that sidesteps that cut entirely starts to look appealing.
Offshore books are working the same opening. They have always sold themselves on price, and a fresh state surcharge only sharpens the pitch. The irony writes itself. A tax built to capture tournament money could push some of it toward channels the state cannot tax at all.
A Test Case the Rest of the Country Is Watching
The bill is small in dollars and shaky in its odds of passing, but the idea behind it is the part worth watching. It would be the first tax of its kind aimed at one specific sporting event, and event-specific taxation is the kind of thing that spreads fast once a state shows it can work. Other 2026 host markets, and any state simply short on revenue, will be reading the receipts.
The pressure is already building elsewhere. North Carolina lawmakers have floated lifting their sports betting tax toward 20 to 30% in budget talks, and New Jersey itself has weighed a 30% rate of its own. The tournament will run a month of attention and money through American sportsbooks. What states try to claim from that money is the story that outlasts the final whistle. For the live picture of where and how Americans can bet right now, the country’s gambling sites are still sorting themselves out state by state.