Sports betting generated more than $60 million in tax revenue for Maryland during the first full fiscal year in which bettors could wager on their phones.
More than nine in every 10 bets that Marylanders placed on sports between the start of July 2023 and the end of this June was through a mobile app or platform.
Live! Casino & Hotel Maryland in Hanover, whose mobile and retail sportsbooks operate through the gambling behemoth FanDuel, saw nearly $2.4 billion in bets and generated more than half of the state’s sports betting revenue.
Overall state revenue decreased from May to June, though Maryland Lottery and Gaming Control Agency officials expected the decline.
“There is typically less wagering activity in the spring and summer,” John Martin, director of the Maryland State Lottery and Gaming Control Agency, said in a May statement to The Daily Record.
Martin said in May that he expected sports betting to contribute more than $56 million to the state during the last fiscal year.
The $5.7 million that it added in June appeared to be more than what the agency expected and represented a more shallow drop-off heading into the summer.
The revenue is set aside for the Blueprint for Maryland’s Future, a lofty, expensive plan to boost education systems and student performance statewide by starting childhood education at an earlier age, increasing pay for teachers and bolstering career and technical education opportunities.
Lawmakers have set aside money to cover the Blueprint for the next three years, but the roughly $40-billion, 10-year plan lacks a permanent funding stream and will be a major driver of multibillion-dollar operating budget deficits in the later years.
Sports betting also generated nearly $986,000 to combat problem gambling. But, advocates for problem gambling resources, including researchers, academics, lawmakers and more, have said the state must dedicate a percentage of the revenue to helping those suffering from a gambling disorder.
Proposals to divert even 1% of sports betting revenue to help fight problem gambling have met a lack of consensus in the legislature.
Lawmakers set up a problem gambling fund in 2007 with the legalization of casino gambling, but as the state has rolled out other forms of betting, they haven’t added revenue streams for the fund.
Unclaimed prize money from in-person sports betting goes to problem gambling resources, but the bulk money wagered on sports in Maryland is through mobile apps, which automatically pay out winners.
Mary Drexler, the director of operations for the Maryland Center of Excellence on Problem Gambling, previously wrote to lawmakers that a dedicated funding stream would help the center boost marketing to counter the gambling industry’s multibillion-dollar campaigns.
It would also help the center attract more treatment providers to the state’s no-cost network and launch public awareness campaigns to target people who are especially prone to problem gambling, like veterans with PTSD, Drexler wrote.
Improving relationships and continuing discussions with state and local legislators is among the public policy goals the center listed in its latest annual report, and it remains to be seen whether the push for more funding will find the support it needs next year.
