Sports gambling has been on the rise in the US, but many states are still against it and are sceptical about lifting wagering restrictions, or refuse to approve gambling licences.

Most US states do permit gambling in some capacity, but less than half the states have legalised sports wagering and even fewer states have “a full online sports betting set-up."

While Massachusetts, California, and Texas have introduced bills that propose to authorise mobile and in-person sports gambling, some other states (such as Arizona, Connecticut, Louisiana, and more) are currently working on launching sports betting this fall.

Utah, however, is one state that is not likely to collect gambling taxes any time soon, as it maintains a strong anti-gambling position (written in the state’s constitution), even while the rest of the nation is slowly looking into ways of approving gambling licences.

Reports from America’s major betting hotspot, Las Vegas, showed $7.87bn in gambling revenue in 2020, and it’s estimated that 20% of the city’s annual visitors come from California (where sports betting is still prohibited).

After a close analysis of the gambling data, The Action Network has released a report that predicts how much tax revenue each state could collect per year. Data from the report places California on top of the list with $331.1m (projected tax revenue) and Michigan on the bottom of the list with $1.7m.

The analysis was based on the same parameters used by New Jersey, which has full online betting and a competitive market of operators, and the numbers only refer to tax revenues; advertising and marketing income is not included.