New York Sports Betting Hold Drove A 67% Tax Jump
- New York’s mobile sportsbooks kept 12.09% of the $384,761,040 wagered in the week ending Aug. 2.
- Gross gaming revenue rose 66.7% week over week while handle rose 8.67%, a tax swing near $9.5 million.
- The fiscal year’s largest handle week, ending June 14, posted negative revenue of $48,515,979 and no tax.
- Handle across 19 weeks is up 12.1% year over year and state tax collections are up 2.2%.
ALBANY, N.Y. – New York’s mobile sportsbooks held 12.09% of wagers in the week ending Aug. 2, lifting gross gaming revenue 66.7% to $46,532,432, the New York State Gaming Commission reported Aug. 6. The state’s cut at the 51% tax rate came to about $23.73 million on handle that rose 8.67% week over week.
The Week’s Tax Bill Turned On What Bettors Lost
Mobile sportsbooks took $384,761,040 in wagers in the week ending Aug. 2 and kept $46,532,432 of it, according to the commission’s weekly mobile sports wagering report. The week before, they took $354,055,497 and kept $27,911,568.
Handle grew $30,705,543. Revenue grew $18,620,864. At the 51% rate the state’s share went from roughly $14.23 million to roughly $23.73 million, a gain of about $9.5 million on 8.67% more betting.
The difference is hold, the share of wagers a book keeps after paying winners. It moved from 7.88% to 12.09%. The higher figure means bettors lost a larger portion of what they staked, not that more money came through the market.
New York’s 51% rate applies to mobile gross gaming revenue, the segment that carries the tax line among legal New York gambling sites.
The Biggest Handle Week Of The Year Produced Nothing
The heaviest betting week of fiscal 2026/27 ended June 14, when handle hit $587,580,123. Gross gaming revenue for that week was negative $48,515,979, a hold of negative 8.26% and a figure that generates no tax at 51%.
Five weeks later, in the week ending July 19, handle came in at $396,178,246, some $191.4 million lower. Hold hit 16.05%, revenue reached $63,579,446 and the state’s share came to roughly $32.43 million.
The commission’s note explains the mechanism: New York reports sports wagering revenue on a cash basis, taxing wagers on future events as current revenue and recognizing payouts on winning wagers in the period bettors redeem them. A week heavy on futures redemptions can post revenue below zero regardless of how much was wagered in it.
The commission posts statewide totals weekly. Most states that have legal sports betting report monthly, which folds a negative week into a positive month and buries swings this large. Weekly hold across the 19 completed weeks has ranged from negative 8.26% to 16.05%, and handle from $354,055,497 to $587,580,123.
Volume Growth Has Barely Reached Albany
Through the week ending Aug. 2, fiscal 2026/27 handle stands at $9,163,908,406 with gross gaming revenue of $846,940,541, a blended hold of 9.24% and roughly $431.94 million in state tax. Those totals cover mobile wagering only, one segment of legal online gambling for US players.
The first 19 weeks of fiscal 2025/26 produced $8,176,756,967 in handle and $828,828,859 in revenue, a hold of 10.14% and roughly $422.70 million in tax. Handle is up 12.07% year over year. Tax collections are up 2.19%, or about $9.24 million, less than the single-week swing between the last two reported weeks.
The rate is fixed and the base is not. Volume has grown; the revenue the 51% applies to has not kept pace, because hold across the 19 weeks fell to 9.24% from 10.14%.
Fiscal 2025/26 closed with $26,134,168,322 in handle and $2,554,574,184 in gross gaming revenue, a full-year hold of 9.77% and about $1.30 billion in tax. The comparable week a year ago, ending Aug. 3, 2025, drew $338,967,252 in handle at a 10.69% hold.
The next open line in the commission’s file covers the week ending Aug. 9.