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JON STYF

The Center Square

Tennessee saw a record $405.3 million in sports gambling wagers in October, according to numbers released on Thursday afternoon.

The previous high was $386 million in January.

With that, the state collected $6.99 million in taxes, the second-highest amount on record after collecting $8.7 million in taxes for September wagers.

More than $405 million was wagered with Tennessee sports books in October.

Tennessee has now seen more than $6 billion in wagers since it opened for online sports gaming in November 2020 with $94.4 million in taxes collected over that span.

Sports gambling tax revenues in Tennessee

Sports gambling tax revenues in Tennessee had its second-best month in terms of tax revenue in October.

Tennessee collects 20% of the industry’s net operator revenue in taxes. Of the sports gambling taxes, 80% of the taxes collected from sports gambling goes to education, 15% goes to the state for distribution to local governments and 5% goes toward mental health programs.

The council expected the tax numbers to rise after the committee issued a memo to sportsbooks this summer stating that, starting July 1, it would be creating new standards for how earnings are reported and how the taxes are calculated.

The June 15 memo defined how sportsbooks need to calculate profit numbers, including how it pertains to promotional bets given to gamblers as deposit bonuses, odds boosts, free bets and more.