Vermont Sports Betting: Legal Apps, Laws & Where to Bet

• ✓ Legal, online Vermonters have bet legally on their phones since Jan. 11, 2024; there is no retail component.
• ⚖ Act 63 H.127 was signed by Gov. Phil Scott on June 14, 2023 and entered the books as Act 63.
• ⚑ Regulator The Vermont Department of Liquor and Lottery oversees the market; the Board of Liquor and Lottery picked the operators by competitive bid.
• ⛪ No casinos No physical sportsbooks, commercial casinos or real-money casino apps exist; the law covered online wagering and nothing more.
• ✅ Small club Vermont is one of the few states with a betting market and no retail component, alongside Wyoming and Tennessee.

It is. Vermonters have been able to wager legally on their phones since Jan. 11, 2024. The bill that opened the door, H.127, was signed by Gov. Phil Scott on June 14, 2023, and entered the books as Act 63. Oversight sits with the Vermont Department of Liquor and Lottery, and the operators themselves were chosen by the Board of Liquor and Lottery after a competitive bid. For a full state-by-state breakdown, see our guide to states with legal sports betting.

Only a handful of states run a betting market with no retail component, and Vermont belongs to that small club alongside Wyoming and Tennessee. Act 63 cleared the way for online wagering and nothing more. Physical sportsbooks, commercial casinos and real-money casino apps were all left out and are still unavailable. Fantasy sports, event-contract platforms and online horse wagering, on the other hand, are all in play.

Vermont Sports Betting Quick Facts

Vermont handed out its licenses through a bid. Five companies put in applications in September 2023, and on Dec. 13, 2023, the Board of Liquor and Lottery signed off on three of them, even though the statute leaves room for six. Penn Entertainment’s ESPN Bet and BetMGM both applied and were passed over. The three winners all switched on together on Jan. 11, 2024.

Every Licensed Online Sportsbook in Vermont

As of 2026 those three are the only books licensed in the state. Because the law allows as many as six, the field could widen if the Board of Liquor and Lottery clears more operators.

Sites based overseas are not licensed or regulated in Vermont, full stop. They run from outside the country and answer to no U.S. authority and to nothing the Department of Liquor and Lottery enforces. Two federal statutes hang over them: the Wire Act, dating to 1961, which deals with betting communications that cross state and national lines, and the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act of 2006, which leans on banks and processors that move money for illegal online betting. Placing a wager with one of these operators is a different animal from using a licensed app, and state officials steer bettors toward the regulated books. Many are reached from a phone, as mobile sports betting sites rather than app-store downloads.

The operators below turn up most often on lists of books that take Vermont sign-ups. They appear here so you understand the landscape and the danger, not as endorsements. Bovada is left off because it currently blocks players located in Vermont.

Three more offshore books round out the lists of operators that take Vermont sign-ups, none of them legal or regulated in the state:

• SportsBetting.ag — part of the same stable as BetOnline, around since the early 2000s, operating from Panama and licensed in Antigua and Barbuda. It offers reduced juice on some markets, a full casino and poker room, and deep crypto banking. Reviewers note it has no cash-out button and a smaller welcome bonus than some rivals, and it is reported to serve most states except New Jersey.
• XBet — a newer entrant that opened around 2013 to 2014, headquartered in Costa Rica with a Curacao license. Its site is a near-twin of MyBookie and covers the major leagues with live markets, a casino and crypto-friendly cashiering, with gentler rollover terms. Coverage reportedly stops in several places including Michigan, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Delaware, Tennessee, New York, New Jersey and Washington, D.C.
• Everygame — longer history than almost any competitor, going back to the 1990s as Intertops, on a Curacao license and leaning toward casino play as much as sports, with strong crypto support. It is said to accept most states while turning away New York, New Jersey, Maryland, Missouri, Kentucky, Louisiana and Washington.

For Vermont bettors, the far safer route is one of the three licensed apps. Those operators answer to the Department of Liquor and Lottery and are on the hook to safeguard deposits, confirm age and provide responsible gaming controls.

Vermont has no in-person sportsbook of any kind. The legalization law skipped physical venues entirely, and the state has no commercial casinos to house one. So anyone who wants the counter-and-kiosk experience has to leave the state.

DraftKings Sportsbook Counters in New Hampshire

Sports betting in New Hampshire flows entirely through DraftKings, which runs five retail spots clustered in the southern half of the state. Expect wagering kiosks, walls of televisions and food and drink. For eastern Vermont these are the nearest windows, though the drive south is real. New Hampshire lets bettors in at 18.

BetRivers at Rivers Casino Schenectady

Sitting in Schenectady, New York, just outside Albany, this is the handiest counter for the western side of Vermont. Rivers Casino is a full commercial property with a retail book and lounge. New York runs both online and in-person betting, and the floor is 21.

BetMGM at MGM Springfield, and Others

Down in Springfield, Massachusetts, MGM Springfield holds the closest brick-and-mortar book for a big slice of southern and southwestern Vermont, with staffed windows, self-serve kiosks, video walls and seating. Worth noting: Massachusetts, like Vermont, forbids wagering on its own college teams, and the minimum age there is 21. A longer trip opens more options: Massachusetts also has retail books at Plainridge Park Casino in Plainville and Encore Boston Harbor in Everett, and Connecticut adds two tribal resorts with sportsbooks, Mohegan Sun and Foxwoods Resort Casino.

Two things govern the market: the statute, H.127 as enacted in Act 63, and the working rules the Department of Liquor and Lottery writes on top of it. The law lets the department license anywhere from two to six online books, pins the state’s share at no less than 20% of adjusted gross revenue, and obligates each operator to check age and identity, offer wager limits and plug into a state self-exclusion program. Operators also owe a fee set at $550,000 that spans at least three years and is divided among the approved books.

Act 63 also stood up a Problem Gambling Special Fund, run by the Vermont Department of Mental Health to bankroll prevention, treatment and recovery. The statute guarantees the fund a floor each year, opening at $250,000 and climbing to at least $500,000 in the years after. In year one, that $250,000 from betting taxes was matched by another $250,000 from the Vermont Lottery, money that stood up a help website and a live chat line.

Who Is Barred From Betting

Beyond the age 21 requirement, the law shuts out several groups:

• Anyone laying a bet for another person.
• Players, coaches, officials, agents, and team, league or union staff, when the wager touches a sport their body governs.
• Anyone sitting on non-public information about the specific wager.
• The people who own or work for the licensed books, plus their contractors, and any operator staff elsewhere who hold inside information.
• Employees of the Department of Liquor and Lottery and the people who share their households.
• Anyone under 21.

Rules for Promotions and Advertising

The regulations require every promotion to be spelled out plainly and truthfully, with no misleading claims. A book cannot slap the word free on an offer that actually requires the customer to risk money, and it has to give bettors an obvious way to turn a bonus down or back out of it. Each offer gets logged so regulators can keep an eye on activity and referee disputes. The rules also curb marketing pointed at minors, demand a plan to keep ads from appealing to anyone under 21, and cap total spending on Vermont betting ads. In April 2025, regulators held the line on promotion caps even as operators pushed back.

Rules That Keep Changing

The department updates its playbook from time to time. The Board of Liquor and Lottery signed off on a beefed-up set of procedures on May 13, 2026, set to kick in Oct. 1, 2026, touching technology, data security, each book’s house rules and the integrity of the games.

Where to Read the Primary Sources

• H.127 history and status: legislature.vermont.gov/bill/status/2024/H.127
• Act 63, full enacted text: Act 63 as enacted (PDF)
• Sports wagering rules and procedures: liquorandlottery.vermont.gov/sports-wagering-procedures
• The department’s sports wagering hub: liquorandlottery.vermont.gov/sports-wagering
• Self-exclusion enrollment: liquorandlottery.vermont.gov/exclusion-list
• Monthly financial reports: liquorandlottery.vermont.gov/monthly-reports

The switch flipped on Jan. 11, 2024, but the road there ran through decades of resistance. For most of its history, Vermont sat firmly in the anti-gambling column. Its statutes have long attached a modest fine to winning or losing money by wagering and a stiffer penalty, including possible jail time, to running a gambling operation. A 1960 measure did permit pari-mutuel betting on live horse racing, but with the state’s racing venues long gone, that allowance faded into the background.

The lottery, launched in 1977, is still the oldest legal wager in Vermont, and since 1998 its proceeds have flowed to the education fund. Fantasy sports had a bumpier ride: state officials briefly deemed them off-limits before a 2016 fix cleared the way, and paid contests have been offered ever since 2017.

Attempts to legalize sports betting kept dying in the statehouse. Back in 2011, a push for a state casino never even escaped committee. A 2019 measure, House Bill 484, which would have let books extend credit to bettors, was shelved. In January 2020, S 213 floated a $10,000 application fee, a 10% tax and an 18-and-up minimum, and it stalled; a companion bill that year, S 59, only asked a committee to study how to legalize, tax and regulate the activity, and it also ran out of time. A 2022 attempt aimed at online-only books met the same fate, though the studies it spurred laid the groundwork.

Everything came together in 2023. Rep. Matthew Birong’s H.127 got through its first House committee in February, passed the full House, and cleared the Senate in early May. Gov. Phil Scott, long wary of expanding gambling, signed it on June 14, 2023, arguing that plenty of residents were already betting through unregulated channels and that a legal market would add protections and funding. A bid followed, five operators applied that September, and on Dec. 13, 2023, the Board of Liquor and Lottery picked FanDuel, DraftKings and Fanatics. The trio launched as one on Jan. 11, 2024.

Timeline of Vermont Sports Betting Legality

• 1960: A state law clears pari-mutuel wagering on live horse racing, later dormant once the tracks closed.
• 1977: The Vermont Lottery debuts as the state’s first legal form of gambling.
• 2016: A state fix reopens the door to daily fantasy sports after an earlier block.
• 2018: The U.S. Supreme Court throws out the federal ban on state sports betting; Vermont creates the Department of Liquor and Lottery.
• January 2020: Sports betting bill S 213 and study bill S 59 both fall short.
• May 2022: Another online betting bill fails to move.
• December 2022: A state study urges lawmakers to legalize and regulate.
• February 2023: H.127 survives its first House committee.
• May 2023: Both chambers pass H.127.
• June 14, 2023: Gov. Phil Scott signs it into law as Act 63.
• September 2023: Five operators file bids.
• Dec. 13, 2023: The Board of Liquor and Lottery selects FanDuel, DraftKings and Fanatics.
• Jan. 11, 2024: Online betting goes live across all three apps.
• February 2024: The first legal-era Super Bowl pulls in more than $2 million in wagers.
• January 2025: Officials trim revenue forecasts after bettors run hot.
• April 2025: Regulators enforce promotion caps over operator objections.
• January 2026: The state opens the year with a record monthly handle.
• Oct. 1, 2026: Enhanced procedures adopted in May 2026 take effect.

Age Floor

Betting on sports in Vermont starts at 21. Act 63 also bumped the daily fantasy age up from 18 to 21.

Being Inside the State

A bet only counts if you are physically within Vermont’s borders, and every app checks your position with geolocation before it takes the wager. You do not have to be a resident, which is a big reason out-of-state visitors make up such a large chunk of the action.

The College Rules

College sports are on the board, with strings attached. Games involving Vermont’s own schools, such as the University of Vermont or Middlebury, are off-limits, and so is any college contest played inside the state. The one opening: you can bet a Vermont college team once it reaches an out-of-state or national tournament, the NCAA Tournament being the obvious example. Props on individual college players are banned statewide, a limit the department wrote into its rules in March 2024.

Payments and Off-Limits Events

Credit cards cannot be used to load a Vermont account. The law also blocks wagering on any event where most participants are younger than 18, alongside the barred groups covered in the laws section.

A few terms make the numbers readable. Handle is the total wagered. Gross revenue is what the books keep once winners are paid. Hold is gross revenue divided by handle, and while it usually lands around 7% to 8%, it swings with results and can run well above or below that in any stretch.

The market is compact but growing. Bettors put down about $198.8 million in 2024, the debut year, and about $235.1 million in 2025. Gross revenue for the books ran near $27.3 million in 2024, when the hold sat close to 14%, and about $22.8 million in 2025, when the hold slid to roughly 9.7% as bettors cashed more tickets. Even with revenue down, the state’s take climbed, from about $6.3 million in 2024 to about $7.3 million in 2025.

The state collects roughly 31.7% of adjusted gross revenue, which comes in below gross revenue once allowable deductions are applied. That is why the amount reaching the state does not equal a flat slice of gross revenue, and why the effective share was thinner in the opening year before edging closer to the headline rate.

Under the statute, the state’s money first pays for the Department of Liquor and Lottery to run and police the market. Whatever the law earmarks for the Problem Gambling Special Fund comes next. The department posts both monthly and annual reports.

Vermont Market Snapshot

With roughly 648,000 residents, Vermont is the second least populous state, and it fields no major pro teams, so out-of-state visitors carry outsized weight in the market. In the opening month, they opened about 53% of new accounts and bet larger amounts on average than locals did. Zoom out and the national picture rhymes with Vermont’s online-only setup: around 20% of adults placed at least one legal bet in 2025, and more than 80% of all wagers ran through mobile devices.

Taxes on Sports Betting Winnings

Money won betting is taxable in Vermont. Residents owe a 6% state rate and visitors owe 7.25%, and that sits on top of the 24% federal rate on qualifying winnings, which a book may withhold and report to the IRS on a Form W-2G for larger payouts. Hang on to your own record of what you wagered and won. Treat this as general information rather than tax advice, and run your own situation by a qualified professional.

Deposits and Withdrawals

The licensed apps take a spread of payment types, and because they are regulated, your balance is protected. You will typically see options such as debit cards, an operator’s own prepaid card or play balance, PayPal and other e-wallets, direct bank transfer and online banking, and, at some books, cash top-ups through a partner retailer. What you will not see is a credit card option, which the state prohibits for funding a betting account.

As a rough guide, deposits made by debit card, e-wallet or an operator’s own card usually post right away, while a direct bank transfer can take a bit longer to clear. On the way out, an online-banking or e-wallet withdrawal is typically the quickest, often landing within a day or two once the book signs off, while a paper check by mail is the slowest choice. Every app runs an identity check before it releases a first withdrawal, so it pays to finish verification early, and in many cases the method you deposited with is the method you have to withdraw back to.

Mobile Sports Betting

Mobile is the whole market here. With no retail counters, every legal bet runs through one of the three apps or its browser version. You can grab the apps from the App Store or Google Play. No matter how you log in, you have to be within Vermont, and the app verifies that with geolocation before it will accept a wager.

Live and In-Game Betting

In-play wagering is available on all three apps, letting you bet after the opening whistle with prices that shift in real time as the game moves. You will find cash-out on select bets and live same-game parlays. In more established markets, live betting has grown into a large chunk of total handle, and the Vermont apps handle it well.

Vermont’s licensed apps carry the same wide menu you would find in any established U.S. market, apart from the state’s college limits. Pro football leads by a mile in betting volume, and the apps blanket the NFL each week with spreads, totals, moneylines, player props, futures and stacks of same-game parlay options. Pro and college basketball pull heavy action as well, and the board swells every March for the NCAA Tournament, though a Vermont college team is only bettable once it reaches that stage. Baseball carries the summer, with run lines, totals, first-five-inning markets and a deep set of props on hits, strikeouts and home runs. Hockey completes the four majors, priced with puck lines, totals and props on shots and points.

Outside the big four, soccer has turned into a year-round draw, spanning the Premier League, the Champions League, MLS and the major international tournaments. Combat sports fans get full UFC and boxing cards with moneylines, method-of-victory and round markets. Golf runs through every major and most weekly events, with outright, matchup and top-finish bets. Tennis, motorsports and, in season, college football fill out the rest of the year. The novelty and entertainment markets that offshore sites lean on are limited under Vermont rules, and any event with mostly underage participants is not allowed.

College sports are the one place Vermont breaks from the pack. You can bet college games freely as long as no in-state school is involved and the game is not played inside Vermont, with the tournament exception noted above, and props on individual college athletes are banned everywhere in the state.

Bet Types at Vermont Sportsbooks

New bettors will meet the same core wager types on all three apps. A moneyline is the simplest bet there is: you pick the side you think will win, with a minus number showing how much you must risk to win $100 on a favorite and a plus number showing what a $100 stake returns on an underdog. A point spread evens out a mismatch by handicapping the favorite, who must win by more than the spread, while the underdog can lose by less than the spread, or win outright, and still cover. A total, or over/under, ignores who wins and asks whether the two sides combine to score more or fewer points than the posted number.

A parlay ties two or more bets onto one ticket, where every leg has to hit; a same-game parlay, which all three apps push hard, combines several outcomes from a single contest. Futures reach further ahead, letting you bet today on something settled later such as a league champion or a season award, with prices that drift all season. Props narrow the focus to a specific result inside a game — Vermont allows props on pro athletes but bans them on individual college players. Teasers and round robins sit at the advanced end: a teaser moves the spread or total in your favor across several games for a smaller payout, while a round robin splits a group of picks into a set of smaller parlays so a single miss does not wipe out the whole ticket. Live betting, discussed above, applies all of these to a game already underway.

Every licensed app dangles a welcome bonus, and those offers turn over constantly, so check the current deal inside the app before you register. Vermont’s rules insist that promotions be described clearly and honestly, which means a book here cannot call an offer free if you have to risk money to claim it, and it has to let you decline or cancel a bonus. The examples below reflect the kinds of welcome deals the three books have run. They are illustrations, not promises, and terms apply. For more, see our guide to sportsbook bonuses.

Past the sign-up offer, all three run recurring perks such as odds and profit boosts and parlay insurance, and Fanatics layers on extra value through its FanCash program.

How to Sign Up and Place Your First Bet

1. Pick one of the three licensed apps: FanDuel, Fanatics or DraftKings.
2. Create an account with your legal name, birth date, address and Social Security number.
3. Verify that you are 21 or older and let the app confirm your identity and that you are inside Vermont.
4. Fund the account with an approved method. Credit cards will not work.
5. Lock in the welcome offer and place your first wager.

Prediction Markets in Vermont

Prediction markets are a category of their own, separate from sportsbooks. Platforms such as Kalshi and Polymarket list event contracts, some tied to sports results, and they generally answer to the federal Commodity Futures Trading Commission rather than Vermont’s betting law. Whether a given product is available to Vermonters depends on how it is classified. Peer-to-peer event contracts are federally regulated and tend to be reachable, while pick-style products that look a lot like prop bets can draw scrutiny under state wagering rules. None of these are overseen by the Department of Liquor and Lottery.

Daily Fantasy Sports in Vermont

Paid fantasy contests have been legal in Vermont since 2017, and Act 63 later lifted the minimum age to 21. Familiar names include PrizePicks, Underdog and the fantasy products from DraftKings and FanDuel. These games are a different product from sportsbook betting.

Social Sportsbooks in Vermont

Social, or sweepstakes, sportsbooks such as Fliff let people play with virtual currency and, in some cases, redeem prizes without a standard cash bet. They operate on a promotional sweepstakes model that sits apart from Vermont’s licensed betting market and is not overseen by the Department of Liquor and Lottery.

Horse Race Betting in Vermont

Wagering on the horses is legal in Vermont, but strictly online through advance-deposit platforms such as TwinSpires and AmWager. There are no tracks or off-track parlors in the state, and the racing venues of the past are long closed. The betting law counts horse racing as a sporting event.

Other Legal Gambling in Vermont

Away from sports betting, the state runs a lottery, with scratch tickets and draw games plus a role in the Tri-State Lottery shared with New Hampshire and Maine and the national Powerball and Mega Millions drawings. Nonprofits can host charitable games like raffles and bingo. What Vermont does not have is a casino, commercial or tribal, since the state recognizes no tribes, and neither online casino play nor online poker is legal.

Vermont Teams and What People Bet

Without a major pro franchise of its own, Vermont’s betting action mostly follows New England and Boston teams, the Boston Bruins, Boston Celtics, Boston Red Sox and New England Patriots among them. On the college side, the University of Vermont Catamounts and Middlebury draw local eyes, though bets on in-state schools are capped to out-of-state and national tournaments. Football leads the wagering, with basketball and baseball close behind and soccer, tennis, golf and UFC all readily available.

Vermont Compared With Its Neighbors

With no pro teams of its own and borders touching five states, Vermont’s bettors often size up the region, and anyone who travels will find very different setups next door. New Hampshire runs the most unusual market of the bunch: the state lottery signed a near-exclusive deal with DraftKings, so that is the only online book available there, propped up by a few retail counters, and the minimum age is 18 rather than 21. New York sits at the far other end, with a crowded field of apps, both online and casino-based retail betting, one of the largest handles in the country, and a steep 51% tax on operator revenue that can squeeze the prices bettors see. Massachusetts opened in 2023 with a deep roster of online books plus retail sportsbooks at its casinos, and, like Vermont, it bars wagering on in-state college teams. Maine, which launched in late 2023, ties its online licenses to its tribes and runs a smaller slate of apps. Connecticut keeps a compact market built around its two tribal casinos and the state lottery, with online betting live since 2021.

The practical takeaway for a Vermonter is simple. If you want to bet in person, the closest counters are in these states, as covered earlier. If an app is all you need, you can start betting the moment you cross into any of them and open an account licensed there, since none of them require residency, the same as Vermont.

The Road Ahead for Vermont Betting

Room exists for more books. The law tops out at six operators, only three are live, and BetMGM and ESPN Bet, both turned away at launch, could take another run at the market. In-person betting is not authorized and has no timetable. A 2025 push to repeal betting failed, and online casino gaming is not on the table right now. The enhanced procedures the board adopted in May 2026 arrive Oct. 1, 2026.

Recent Vermont Sports Betting News

• March 2026: The Department of Liquor and Lottery reported February handle of about $21.9 million, roughly $2.6 million in revenue and about $836,000 in state tax.
• February 2026: The state opened the year with a record monthly handle near $27.4 million and about $819,000 in state tax.
• April 2025: Regulators enforced promotion caps despite pushback from operators.
• January 2025: Officials cut revenue projections after bettors won at an unusually high rate.

Consumer protections are baked into the market. A bettor can lock out of every licensed book at once through the Department of Liquor and Lottery for one, three or five years or for life, and anyone sharing a joint bank account can shut that account out of all licensed apps. Operators are required to confirm age and identity, offer daily, weekly and monthly wager limits, and guard customers’ personal and financial data. The state funds help through the Problem Gambling Special Fund, run by the Department of Mental Health.

This page was last reviewed in July 2026. Primary legal sources include the Vermont Legislature for H.127 and Act 63 and the Department of Liquor and Lottery for sports wagering rules, procedures, self-exclusion and monthly reports, all linked in the laws section above. Operator, market and revenue details were drawn from department reporting and current coverage of the Vermont market. Laws and operator availability can change, so verify the current status before acting on anything here. 21 or older only. Gambling problem? Call or text 1-800-GAMBLER.