The Ocean State’s gambling sector made an astonishing start to 2025 after Rhode Island revealed its total betting handle generated over $150.9 million in January.
Meanwhile, the office of the Auditor General also declared that the state’s gambling taxes had raised over $434 million in 2024.
January’s revenue figures make staggering reading, given that Rhode Island only has a population of 1.1 million residents.
To put these numbers into context, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Michigan reported revenues of $529.1 million, $210.1 million, and $331.2 million, respectively, in the same period. Yet each of these states has nearly ten times the population of Rhode Island.
The Rhode Island Lottery, which operates the only legal online sportsbook platform in the state, saw impressive takings last year. Its video lottery and casino offerings raked in over $320.5 million in 2024.
The popular video lottery terminals were responsible for generating 71.9% of Rhode Island’s total gambling revenues in 2024.
Rhode Island’s high revenue, in relation to its population, was aided by the heightened enthusiasm in national lottery games such as Powerball and Mega Millions, which witnessed three jackpots all in excess of $1 billion last year.
That being said, online casino games and table games such as blackjack, poker, and roulette also had their say after contributing a sizable chunk of the state’s gambling revenue, posting an impressive total of $50.9 million.
Finally, and not to be outdone, despite sports betting revenues only accounting for 9.6% of the state’s gambling revenues in the same period, industry insiders point to the sector’s sizable tax contribution.
Given that Rhode Island boasts one of the highest tax rates in the country equating to 51% taxation on sports betting revenue.
When you factor in Rhode Island’s impressive gross gambling revenues per capita in tandem with its tax-generating structure, The Ocean State has quite rightly been heralded as one of America’s gambling success stories.