The pandemic has spurred states to scramble to find more revenue streams in place to combat the impact of COVID-19 on tax coffers amid business closings and layoffs.
One source of coffer filling, increasingly, has come from online gaming.
As has been seen in recent announcements, earlier this year, New York has a plan to join the online mobile sports betting fray. As reported in January, Governor Andrew Cuomo has set sights on a single platform/online provider to enable online betting activity in partnership with casinos.
And to get a sense of scale and how online gaming can indeed help states recover at least some of what had been missing as COVID-19 took root, earlier this month, the Michigan Gaming Control Board said that online sports betting operators earned $9.5 million in February while betting volume was more than $301 million, and where the online operators made $79.7 million in internet gaming. The state took in a bit more than $14 million in internet gaming-related revenue, as estimated by the Michigan Gaming Control Board. Internet gaming and sports betting debuted in the state at the end of January.
Online Casinos And Poker Sites Beckon
Separately, in early March, as reported by Caisno.org, Connecticut took steps to legalize online gambling, becoming the sixth state with online casinos and poker sites.
Elsewhere, in Illinois, there is legislation in place to legalize online poker and online casino gaming through the Internet Gaming Act, adding those options to online sports betting (already legal in Illinois) and where the proposed tax rate on gross gaming revenues would be 12 percent. As reported by pokerfuze.com, Michigan taxes online gaming at more than 20 percent of adjusted gross receipts, and New Jersey taxes Internet Gaming Gross Revenue at about 15 percent.
Among recent announcements, Dover Downs owner Bally’s Corp. struck a deal to buy U.K.-based Gamesys Group.
The great digital shift also has its place in wagering, it seems. As reported by The Press of Atlantic City, casino gaming revenue taxes declined as the brick and mortar locations were shuttered, but “internet gaming revenue more than doubled year-to-date as of October. Taxes on that revenue significantly helped to offset losses in the tax revenue from brick-and-mortar slots and table games,” said Jane Bokunewicz, coordinator of the Lloyd D. Levenson Institute of Gaming, Hospitality & Tourism at Stockton University. The site reported that taxes tied to online casino gross revenue were up year over year and were more than half of all monies collected through gambling taxes.
Wall Street beckons, perhaps no surprise. As reported in this space recently, 888 Holdings, an online gambling outlet, is exploring the possibility of going public here in the states.
With increased gaming activity comes the opportunity for solutions providers to help speed payments. As we noted last year, digital betters are not likely to be satisfied waiting for long settlement times or even — in the oldest of old-fashioned ways, perhaps — for a paper check to arrive in the mail.
We’re always on the lookout for opportunities to partner with innovators and disruptors.
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