Virginia Sports Betting Brisk In April Despite Drop From March

After eclipsing the half- a-billion-dollar mark in March in sports betting handle, Virginia saw a step back in the month of April.

More than $420 million bet on sports in a single month is nothing to scoff at, but April was quite a drop-off from the previous month. It was 18% lower than March’s whopping $512 million, which was aided by March Madness betting.

Still, it beat April 2022’s handle by 6.6%, and was just 2% lower than betting in February. After deductions, the state collected nearly $6 million in April, it announced in a press release distributed Thursday morning.

Virginia players won $378M in April

Overall, April was another strong month of business for Virginia sports betting. According to the Virginia Lottery, $422,465,093 was wagered on sports in the month. 

Players who wagered on sports in Virginia won $378 million in April. After deductions, promotions, free plays and other bonuses, sportsbooks kept $38.8 million in adjusted gross revenue, a hold of 10.6%. Not a bad take for one month of operation.

Business continues upward trend in 2023

Through four months of the year, Virginia sports bettors have wagered nearly $1.9 billion. Almost all of that handle has come from online outlets. So far in 2023, only $13.8 million has been wagered at brick-and-mortar facilities.

That number is significantly ahead of last year’s pace. Through the first four months of 2022, operators reported slightly more than $1.75 billion in handle. At that time, there were 12 licensed sports betting providers in the state. This year, there are 16.

State tax money goes to general fund and responsible gaming fund

The state collected around $5.8 million from its 15% tax. Like many of the other statistics in this report, that represents a drop from March’s total (more than $7.4 million). However, it’s a significant increase from February’s tax take of nearly $4.7 million, and a number that nearly doubles last April’s total. One year ago, Virginia collected just over $3 million from sports betting operators.

Ten of the sports betting operators in Virginia reported positive adjusted gross revenue for April. The other six sportsbooks did not make a profit in April. As such, they did not contribute to the industry’s tax contributions.

Tax money goes into two funds in Virginia. The largest, 97.5%, goes to General Fund Allocation to pay for various projects and services across the state. The remaining 2.5% goes to responsible gambling programs through the Problem Gambling Treatment and Support Fund Allocation.

Around $145,000 went to the problem gambling fund in April. The remainder went to the general fund.

So far in 2023, Virginia sports betting operators have paid more than $24.2 million in taxes. Of that total, more than $606,000 has gone to support programs addressing problem gambling in the commonwealth.