States to Get Tax Slice of $8.5B in March Madness Wagers

The NCAA men’s basketball tournament will attract $8.5 billion in both legal and illegal sports wagers, according to the American Gaming Association.

A March 18 survey released by the AGA estimates that 47 million American adults will wager on March Madness, which means one in five adults will place a bet during the tournament. Legal sports betting is an option for all states following the U.S. Supreme Court’s May 2018 ruling in Murphy v. NCAA, which repealed the federal Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act of 1992 (PASPA). That law had prohibited states from authorizing gambling related to professional and ...