- Tennessee collected $8,438,391 in sports betting privilege tax in June, up 30% from a year earlier.
- Gross handle reached $456.1 million, a 30% year-over-year jump during the World Cup’s opening month.
- Tennessee taxes 1.85% of every dollar wagered rather than sportsbook revenue, the only state to do so.
- That design lifts state revenue whenever betting volume climbs, even when sportsbooks hold below 9.25%.
NASHVILLE, Tenn. – Tennessee collected $8,438,391 in sports betting privilege tax in June, up 30% from a year earlier, as World Cup wagering pushed the state’s handle to a summer high of $456.1 million.
The Tennessee Sports Wagering Council reported gross wagers of $460,518,733 for June, $4,389,475 in adjustments, and gross handle of $456,129,258. The privilege tax assessed came to $8,438,391 — exactly 1.85% of the handle. A year earlier, in June 2025, the council reported a handle of $350,943,907 and tax of $6,476,661, so both figures rose almost precisely in step, a 30% climb.
A Tax On Wagers, Not Winnings
Tennessee is the only state that taxes sports betting handle instead of the revenue operators keep. It charges a flat 1.85% on every dollar wagered, a rate adopted in 2023 when the state abandoned the 20% tax on adjusted gross revenue it had used since launch, a shift covered in Tennessee’s move to a new sports betting tax model. Every other state ties its cut to the sportsbook’s win, so its tax revenue falls whenever bettors do well and hold rates drop.
That distinction is what made June work in the state’s favor. A handle tax tracks how much is bet, not how much operators keep, so a month heavy with public money on marquee events feeds state coffers regardless of which way the results break.
The 9.25% Dividing Line
The two systems meet at a single hold rate since 20% of a 9.25% hold equals 1.85% of the handle, so 9.25% is the point where the old tax and the new one collect the same amount. Any month sportsbooks hold above 9.25%, the handle tax yields less than the prior revenue tax would have. Any month they hold below it, the handle tax yields more.
Marquee soccer tournaments tend to push large sums onto favorites and public sides, the kind of month that can compress operator hold. Under the old formula, thinner margins would have shrunk Tennessee’s take. Under the handle tax, the state collected 1.85% of a summer-high total of wagers no matter how the books fared.
A World Cup Handle Spike
The June increase arrived as the World Cup, played across North American host cities beginning in June, drew casual bettors into legal sports betting markets. Tennessee’s $456.1 million handle outpaced its June 2025 total by more than $105 million.
The state has run online-only Tennessee sports betting since November 2020 and remains one of the few states without retail sportsbooks, routing every wager through mobile apps.
The council releases its figures monthly and has not broken out handle by operator or by sport. Its July report, covering the World Cup’s knockout rounds and final, is due in August and will show whether the tournament’s closing weeks extended the summer surge.
