Virginia sportsbooks have never had it so good, quite literally. They amassed more win during January 2024 than they have in any other month since they started accepting wagers in January 2021.
Accordingly, bettors in the state were more active in terms of dollars wagered than they had ever been during the month. While the state is still working on a potential expansion of legal sports wagering, these new records may not stand for long.
Virginia sportsbooks win over $74.3 million from players in January
According to the Virginia Lottery’s January sports betting activity report, bettors gambled over $652.8 million using licensed sportsbooks. That eclipses the old single-month record of $638.8 million in November 2023.
Sportsbooks won around 11.4% of that money, making for a new single-month record of $74.3 million in gross win. The old standard was just under $64 million from October 2023. For the first seven months of the current fiscal year in Virginia, sportsbooks’ gross win is up 10.5% in comparison to the same period in FY2022-23.
When it comes to taxable revenue, the sum for January 2024 represents a 37.6% increase on Virginia’s January 2023 taxable gaming revenue. The state’s cut of that revenue for January 2024 comes to more than $9.9 million.
Combined with January 2024 VA casino revenue, these gaming types produced $120.3 million in taxable revenue during the month.
That translated into over $19.4 million in gaming tax revenue for Virginia. Both of those figures are up an impressive 46.3% in comparison to January 2023. As strong as those numbers appear, they might be surpassed soon.
March looms large for Virginia’s gambling industry
Whether March will outperform January in terms of sports betting activity is uncertain. In two of the past three years, that has been the case. However, legal sportsbooks only operated for the final 10 days of January 2021. That skews a comparison between January and March 2021.
Casting 2021 aside, then, it’s been a 50/50 split as far as whether March numbers outperform their January counterparts within the same year. Exterior indications do little to provide writing on the wall to read.
The Virginia legislature has shelved a bill to remove the restriction on wagering on in-state college teams. Enacting that bill in time for March 2024 seemed like a long shot but it might have increased betting interest for 2024 and beyond.
While that suggests betting activity this March might be stagnant, some factors suggest otherwise. The amount of interest in women’s collegiate basketball continues to skyrocket and could hit a new threshold in March. While bettors won’t be able to wager on the fate of ACC regular-season champion Virginia Tech in that regard, a strong showing from the Hokies could inspire some action on the in-state college restriction repeal in 2025.
Regardless of what lies ahead, January 2024 is now the strongest month on record in Virginia in terms of two pertinent sports betting metrics.