Michigan is the 10th ranked state for the highest legal gross sports betting revenues with $1.9 billion in receipts since it became legal in early 2020, according to a new study by The Motley Fool, a private financial and investing advice company based in Alexandria, Va. The numbers include in-person and online gaming.
The Motley Fool puts New York at the top of the list with $6.39 billion in revenue, New Jersey in second with $5,09 billion, Illinois in third with $4.37 billion, Pennsylvania in fourth with $3.37 billion, and strangely Nevada in fifth with $2.9 billion.
“Sports betting is big business for states,” writes Jack Caporal, research director for The Motley Fool and Motley Fool Money. “Sports betting is now a mainstay, with ads in legal states hard to miss and odds being discussed on sports media every day. The value of sports betting handle — the amount of money gambled — grew from $4.6 billion in 2018 to $149 billion in 2024, an astonishing rate that reflects America’s interest in wagering on sports.”
In addition to the state’s 15 in-person casinos, as of 2022, there are 15 legal online sportsbooks available to bettors in Michigan, each connected to a brick-and-mortar operation, according to SportsHandle.com.
The Michigan Gaming Control Board originally approved 15 different online brands, allowing one skin (or brand) apiece from each of the state’s three commercial casinos, and likewise one skin apiece from each of the 12 federally recognized Native American tribes operating casinos in the state, which collectively run 23 casinos.
In August alone, operators in the state collected $35.1 million in revenue from wagering on sports.
The Motley Fool’s study is intended to show that it’s wiser to invest cash than gamble it on sports.
“Based on the numbers during football season, the average NFL bettor losses between 8 percent to 9 percent of what they wager,” writes Caporal. “That translates to a $133 to $209 loss per bettor depending on the year. Even with big games and high stakes, sportsbooks consistently come out ahead and most individual bettors finish with less than they put in.”
“By comparison, putting that same money into a high-yield savings account or the stock market would have delivered steady gains,” he writes. “High-yield savings accounts offer modest but safe and predictable returns of between 0.4 percent and 2.7 percent over the NFL season, depending on the year while the S&P 500 delivered anywhere from 1 percent to 12 percent gains, again depending on the year.”
To review the study, visit here.
