Sports betting has been on the rise since the Supreme Court repealed the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act of 1992 (PASPA) in May 2018 opening the way for sports wagering. As of now, there are 20 that have legalized sports betting.
Iowa is one of the states that have legalized sports betting. The sports betting market in Iowa reached a major milestone recently when it became the seventh state to hit $1 billion in cumulative sports betting handle.
This means that Iowans have bet more than a billion since Iowa sportsbooks started accepting wagers from August 2019.
KCCI
The $1 billion landmark was passed by the latest posting of a $143.6 million sports handle for February.
This was reported by the state’s Racing and Gaming Commission and continues a five-month streak of record betting handles for the state. The $143.6 million recorded in February was lower than January’s record $149.5 million but that is not surprising as February had 3 days less than Jan.
Now that Iowa has crossed the $1 billion mark, it joins a select group of states which includes Nevada, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Illinois, Indiana and Colorado. All these states have posted more than a billion in sports betting handles.
Brian Ohorliko, the administrator for Iowa’s Racing and Gaming Commission said the state is very pleased with the results. He points out that the state’s robust betting legislation has ensured that the sports betting industry still grew despite it being a highly-regulated industry.
When it comes to betting revenue, the state’s gambling operators received a combined $7.7 million in earnings. This is a dip from the previous month’s revenues which exceeded more than $11 million. This is mostly because of bettors faring well in February, which did cut into the earnings. The state also got its cut as Iowa received $520,444 in taxes from operators. This puts Iowa’s all-time earnings total over $5 million.
One of the big factors that helped contribute to the high sports handle was the state opening up to remote registration. Iowa started allowing remote registration for sports betting at the start of 2021 and stats show that the mobile handle was $125.2 million for February. This is higher than January 2021’s handle of $120.8 million which was already a record.
Additionally, this was 87.2 percent of the state’s entire handle and shows just how popular mobile sports betting is in the state!
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