How a state taxes its sportsbooks decided whether record June betting filled its tax coffers or left them short.
- New York and Tennessee set June handle records, but the World Cup’s thin margins cut into sportsbook revenue.
- Tennessee, the only state that taxes handle instead of revenue, collected 30% more tax even as books earned less.
- New York’s hold fell to an all-time-low 5.19%, dropping gross revenue 43% despite a record $2.26 billion wagered.
- Iowa’s handle held flat but sportsbook revenue fell 21%, as retail betting more than doubled during the tournament.
NASHVILLE – Sports betting handle set June records in several states last month while sportsbook revenue fell, as low-margin World Cup wagering compressed the industry’s hold to some of the thinnest levels on record.
The June reports out of Tennessee and Iowa follow the same pattern New York’s numbers set a day earlier, and together they sketch a month when Americans bet more than ever across the U.S. online gambling market and the books kept less of it than almost any month on record.
The Margin, Not the Volume
The World Cup opened June 11 across North American host cities, and it reshaped a month of betting data. The group stage funneled recreational money onto heavy favorites, often stacked into parlays that cashed when the chalk held. That pushed hold, the share of wagers the books keep, to lows the industry rarely sees.
New York showed it first. Mobile sportsbooks in the nation’s largest market took a record $2.26 billion in June, up 36.4% from a year earlier, yet gross revenue fell 43% to $117 million as hold landed at 5.19%, roughly half the 9.68% the state averaged in 2025, the New York State Gaming Commission reported. The June figures for New York marked the thinnest monthly margin in the state’s mobile era.
Why Tennessee Came Out Ahead
Tennessee showed the flip side. Bettors there staked $456,129,258, a June record and 30.0% above last June, according to the Tennessee Sports Wagering Council. The state levies its 1.85% privilege tax on total wagers rather than on what the books keep, the only handle-based structure in the country, so its collections climbed by that same 30.0%, to $8,438,391.
That is the divide the tournament exposed. Where a state’s tax rides on betting volume, a record June meant a record tax month. Where it rides on sportsbook profit, as in New York, collections fell even as residents wagered more than they ever had.
Iowa’s Flat Handle, Thinner Books
Iowa traced the same pattern in a smaller market. Sportsbooks took $185,417,064 in June, virtually flat against a year earlier, but net receipts fell 21% to $16,413,988, an 8.85% hold, according to the Iowa Racing and Gaming Commission.
One wrinkle stood out. Retail betting, which has shrunk for years, more than doubled to $8,683,797 while online handle slipped 2.75% to $176,733,268, a sign the tournament pulled some fans off their phones and into casinos.
The reports widen a June picture still filling in across the states with online sports betting, and they point to a leaner month for tax coffers wherever collections depend on what the books keep rather than what bettors put down.