Since the Supreme Court in 2018 let states allow betting on college sports, sportsbook activity, like this in a Las Vegas casino, has pick up substantially. (Photo by Kay Bell) College and professional sports dominate screens right now. And sports wagering has increased annually since the Supreme Court of the United States in 2018 opened the door for states to allow sports betting on collegiate competitions. The high court’s move also made it possible for the Internal Revenue Service to collect on winning bets placed at legal sportsbooks. For the most part, those operations report the amounts that went into... Read more →
Sports
Regular readers already know this, but since the college and professional football seasons are underway, and we’re about to head into Major League Baseball’s playoffs, it’s time for a reminder. Any winning sports bets are taxable income at the federal and most state levels. Sports betting’s growth: More of us are pocketing a few extra dollars after the games since the U.S. Supreme Court in 2018 ruled that states can decide whether to allow gambling within their borders. That includes online betting. Currently, 38 states and the District of Columbia allow some form of sports betting. Twenty-seven of those states... Read more →
The 2024 National Football Season has started. So far, I’m 0-and-2 for the games played before the regular Sunday kickoffs. I’m hoping my Cowboys don’t make it a disappointing threefer. The NFL is the most popular sport in the United States. It’s also a favorite of tax collectors, both the Internal Revenue Service and at the state level. Uncle Sam obviously gets a nice cut of the exorbitant salaries professional football players make. If the team is based in a state that collects individual income tax, so does that state's tax department. But there’s a third tax collection winner, the... Read more →
Photo by Luca Dugaro on Unsplash The 2024 Olympics, summer games version, started today with lots of men’s football (soccer to us Americans) and rugby matches on the schedule. Most of us, though, won’t start paying close attention until Friday’s (July 26) opening ceremony. Tennis phenom Coco Gauff and NBA superstar LeBron James, stars at the professional level in their respective sports, will be the Team USA flag bearers. Not only is Gauff the first tennis player to get the opening procession honor, at 20 she is the youngest U.S. Olympian to do so. That’s a fitting complement to veteran... Read more →
Shortly after MLB superstar Shohei Ohtani joined the Los Angeles Dodgers, a federal sports gambling scandal involving his now-former translator Ippei Mizuhara broke. This week, Mizuhara (below left), agreed to a plea deal. (Mizuhara photo by Moto "Club4AG" Miwa from USA - Angels vs Mariners 2019-6-8 Anaheim Stadium, CC BY 2.0. Ohtani photo by All-Pro Reels from District of Columbia, USA - Dodgers at Nationals, CC BY-SA 2.0.) Sports and courts too often coincide outside the usual tennis venues. Leagues are sued by competitors. Broadcasting rights battles are litigated. Players’ union grievances are heard by various judges. Individual players sometimes... Read more →
Photo by Kay Bell Not only was last Sunday's Super Bowl LVIII the most watched National Football League championship game ever, it set a betting record. In case you were one of the apparently very few who missed it, the Kansas City Chiefs beat the San Francisco 49ers in overtime. The comeback was similar to the less dramatic result back in 2020, when the two teams faced off in Super Bowl 54. That year, MVP quarterback Patrick Mahomes and not-yet-Taylor-Swift's boyfriend Travis Kelce raised their first Lombardi Trophy. The Nevada Gaming Control Board tallied $185.6 million in bets across 182... Read more →
Allegiant Stadium will be filled with 49ers and Chiefs fans Sunday as they vie for the NFL championship in Super Bowl LVIII. (Photo: Allegiant Stadium) This Sunday, millions will watch the Kansas City Chiefs and San Francisco 49ers face off in Las Vegas to determine the National Football League's championship. With the Sin City location, it's fitting that a record 67.8 million American adults are expected to bet on Super Bowl LVIII. That's a 35 percent increase from 2023, according to a new American Gaming Association (AGA) survey. The dollar amount also is up this year. Bettors plan to wager... Read more →
Photo via Unsplash+ in collaboration with Getty Images College football fans are in heaven. The 2023 NCAA bowl season is underway. The first of the 42 games kicked off this morning in with Georgia Southern meeting Ohio in the Myrtle Beach Bowl. The event's sponsoring name notwithstanding, the event is actually more inland, at Brooks Stadium in Conway, South Carolina. There are six more games today, all as appetizers to the main menu meal, the College Football Playoff National Championship Game in Houston on Monday, Jan. 8, 2024. The one downside this year is the number of notable players —... Read more →
Wikipedia photo U.S. sports fans this time of year are focused on football. We're in the midst of the NFL season (how 'bout them Cowboys thumping the Eagles on Sunday night?!) and the NCAA bowl season is on the horizon. But a baseball player has many of us talking. Shohei Ohtani, the phenomenal two-way player touted as the modern-day Babe Ruth, set yet another record, this time off the field. The Japanese pitcher-slugger signed a $10-year, $700 million deal with the Los Angeles Dodgers that shatters all prior major league records. It's the biggest deal not just for an MLB... Read more →
Taxes play a part in a business' success. And states' tax structures can attract, or discourage, businesses' decisions to locate within their borders. (Photo by Unsplash+ in collaboration with Getty Images) College football captures most sports fans' attention this time of year, but it's also prime time for baseball. So, with the World Series underway, it seemed fitting that this weekend's first Saturday Shout Outs goes to an item that uses a baseball measurement to evaluate and compare business taxes in the country's 50 states and the District of Columbia. As long-time readers of the ol' blog have already figured... Read more →
Beyoncé on the Renaissance World Tour at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in London on June 1, 2023, (Photo by Raph_PH - BeyonceSpurs010623) I love music. I just ordered two CDs last week. That last retail admission should tip you off that my prime concert-going days are behind me. In one way, I'm glad. The cost to see my favorite musicians perform back in my day was reasonable, even then. Today's more youthful fans, however, are shelling out big bucks to attend concerts. Marketplace economics are part of the calculation. And emotion is part of the market. So scalpers, whose targets are... Read more →
Students settling in at the top of Kyle Field stadium in College Station in advance of a Texas A&M vs. University of Texas-Austin game. The Lone Star State rivalry looks to resume, since Texas will join A&M in the Southeastern Conference (SEC) next year. (Photo by Zabdiel Gonzalez on Unsplash) Yes, college football technically kicked off last weekend, but today was when most fans got the games they've been waiting months to see. Like the TCU-Colorado match-up in the yet again rejiggered Big 12 conference. That game was wild! You know Big 12 football is back when there’s no defense... Read more →
Aviva Stadium in Dublin, Ireland, usually hosts rugby matches. On Saturday, Aug. 26, it will once again be configured to meet U.S. college football dimensions for a Navy-Notre Dame game. Here's how Aviva looked in 2012 when the two teams played there. (Photo by Papachinzo via Wikipedia CC) The 2023 National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I college football season kicks off this Saturday. I'll be yelling (yes, literally screaming at my TV in joy and, no doubt, frustration) for the Naval Academy's midshipmen as they take on Notre Dame in Ireland. Yep, the country of Ireland. Talk about an... Read more →
Real Madrid Carlo Ancelotti on the pitch sidelines (Photo: @MadridXtra Twitter screen capture) Spanish tax officials are not letting anything slide, especially when it comes to global celebrities. The tax evasion trial of pop star Shakira is scheduled to start this November. Now Carlo Ancelotti, coach of Real Madrid futbol club (for casual fans like me, that's a popular, and very valuable, soccer team), will stand trial for tax fraud for allegedly failing to declare image rights earnings in 2014 to the Spanish tax office. A Spanish judge said Ancelotti had "acknowledged" the actions which deprived the country's treasury of... Read more →
U.S. Senators today grilled professional golf representatives in connection with the planned merger of the PGA Tour and LIV Golf, the upstart league backed by Saudi Arabia. Critics, including many in the sports world as well as Congress, of the deal say it's a thinly disguised effort by the Mideastern country to sportswash its stained human rights reputation. Others add that it's an attempt to bolster its economic influence in the United States. The Senate Homeland Security Committee's Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations hearing ran around three hours, but apparently didn't resolve much. (Insert your own Capitol Hill dog and pony... Read more →
FanDuel On July 1, Tennessee will become the first state to tax sports betting handle. That means the Volunteer State's tax take will be based on based on the total amount of money wagered, instead of revenue collected. For a few more days, Tennessee will impose a 20 percent tax on adjusted gross gambling revenue (AGR). Next month, it will tax sports betting handle at 2 percent. The reason is, of course, money. Millions more to collect: A Tennessee General Assembly Fiscal Review Committee financial summary of the bill making the taxing methodology change notes that more than $3.77 billion... Read more →
Photo by Ays Be on Unsplash Congratulations to the Denver Nuggets on winning their first National Basketball Association championship. Congratulations, too, to all the bettors (like Drake) who pocketed some cash when their sports wagers paid off. Now all that's left is declaring those winnings as income on 2023 tax returns next year and paying the tax due on the money. Since sports betting has expanded across much of the United States, the Internal Revenue Service is in a much better position to know about these winnings and collect the associated taxes. U.S. commercial gaming revenue reached a quarterly record... Read more →
A view from the left field upper deck of the Milwaukee Brewers' ballpark, back when what is now American Family (AmFam) Field was known as Miller Park. (Photo by Brewersfan1061 via Wikipedia Commons) We're six weeks into the Major League Baseball season and my two favorite teams are giving me plenty of reasons to cheer and rant. But ain't that the way with all sports? At least my teams, the Orioles and Astros, are settled in Baltimore and Houston. I feel for the Oakland fans, where the few still going to Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum are watching their underperforming A's run... Read more →
Great American Park vendor selling frozen treats and beer at a Cincinnati Reds game. (Photo by Chris Metcalf via Flickr CC) Happy MLB Opening Day! No, it's not an official holiday, but it should be. I've been to several Major League Baseball opening days in person over the years. It's great fun. It's also expensive. A ticket to a major league ballpark these days can blow a full grocery budget to bits. And speaking of food, the cost of concessions is outrageous. But since you no longer can bring in food — yes, I'm old enough to remember when we... Read more →
In 1896, the first college basketball game was played. Now, 127 years later, the hoopla known as March Madness is big business and big betting. The annual NCAA Division 1 college basketball tournaments, both men's and women's matches, dominate the airwaves, with networks paying millions for the broadcast rights. Fans follow on their in-home televisions, as well as on their mobile devices via the internet. Seeding, schmeeding: The wins aren't just important to the teams, the university cities, or the colleges' alums. Bettors have placed millions on the games, and lots of them have already lost big. Upsets busted brackets... Read more →