US Sports Betting Legal States Tracker 2026: All 50 States + DC

Legal sports betting is live in 39 US states plus Washington, DC as of July 2026, and 32 jurisdictions (31 states plus DC) run statewide online markets. Eight further states permit retail-only wagering, most of them under tribal compacts, while 11 states, including California and Texas, still have no legal market at all. Online GGR tax rates span 6.75% in Nevada and Iowa to 51% in New York, and the 2025-26 cycle added a new state (Missouri), a per-wager surcharge (Illinois), and three separate tax increases (New Jersey, Louisiana, Maryland). This tracker records the legal status, launch date, tax rate, regulator, and approximate licensed operator count for every state, and it is reviewed quarterly.

Tracker Summary: Four Status Tiers Across 51 Jurisdictions

The US sports betting map resolves into 40 jurisdictions with a legal market and 11 holdout states, and every jurisdiction fits one of four status tiers. Statewide online markets are the commercial core: 31 states plus DC allow residents to register and bet from anywhere in the state (Nevada requires one in-person visit to register). Retail-only states confine wagering to physical sportsbooks, kiosks, or tribal casino premises. The remaining 11 states have no legal channel, though several run active 2026 legislative processes. The tier a state sits in determines everything downstream: which operators can enter, what licensing costs apply, and how affiliate programs can market there.

Master Table: Status, Launch, Tax Rate, and Regulator in Every State

The master table below records six data points for all 51 jurisdictions: legal status, the date the first legal bet was taken (with the online launch date where it came later), the tax rate applied to online gross gaming revenue (GGR), the regulator of record, and the approximate number of licensed online brands live in the market. Operator counts are approximate because state license registers change monthly; treat them as market-structure signals, not exact rosters. Tax rates are the headline statutory rates on operator revenue; several states layer local taxes, fees, or deduction limits on top.

Revenue and handle figures are deliberately excluded from this table so each column stays authoritative for one thing: legality, taxation, and market access. For monthly handle, GGR, and hold data by state, use the companion report on US sports betting handle and revenue by state, which is maintained on the same quarterly cadence as this tracker.

Pending Legislation: The 11 States Without Legal Sports Betting

No legal sports betting market exists in 11 jurisdictions, but the group splits into active-bill states and structurally blocked states. Minnesota and Georgia carry live 2026 vehicles, Oklahoma has passed bills through one chamber, and Hawaii recorded its first meaningful committee movement in February 2026. California and Texas, the two largest prizes, remain blocked by tribal politics and constitutional-amendment requirements respectively, and neither has a realistic path before 2027-28. Utah remains the only state with an effectively absolute constitutional prohibition and no organized legalization effort.

Recent Changes: 2025-26 Legislative Cycle Changelog

Nine material changes hit this tracker between July 2025 and July 2026, and the dominant theme was taxation, not legalization. Only one new state launched (Missouri), while four established markets raised the effective cost of operating: Illinois added the first per-wager surcharge in the country, and New Jersey, Louisiana, and Maryland all lifted headline rates. The changelog below is the authoritative record of what changed and when; each entry stays listed for at least four quarters so anyone citing an older version of this page can reconcile differences.

Tax Rate Structures: From 6.75% of GGR to 51%

Online sports betting tax rates span 6.75% of GGR in Nevada and Iowa to 51% in New York, New Hampshire, and Rhode Island, a 7.5x spread that produces fundamentally different market structures. Low-tax open-license states support 10-15 competing brands and aggressive promotional spend; 51% revenue-share states support one to nine operators running thin-margin books. The structure matters as much as the rate: a graduated schedule with a per-wager fee (Illinois) punishes high-volume low-margin operators differently than a flat rate, and Tennessee's 1.85% handle tax removes hold percentage from the tax equation entirely.

• Revenue-share monopoly or near-monopoly states (NH, RI, DE, OR, and effectively FL): the state takes roughly half of revenue in exchange for exclusivity, so the market carries 1 brand and minimal promotional competition.
• High-tax open markets (NY 51%, PA 36%, IL 20-40% plus per-wager fees): multiple brands operate, but promotional budgets, odds pricing, and affiliate CPA rates are visibly tighter than in mid-tax states.
• Mid-tax mainstream markets (15-21.5%: NJ, MD, MA, OH, NC, LA, VA, KY, AR upper tier): the largest cluster, generally 6-15 brands, where most operator expansion economics are modeled.
• Low-tax markets (6.75-10%: NV, IA, IN, MI, WV, CO, AZ, KS, ME, MO, WY, SD retail): the friendliest operator economics and typically the widest affiliate commission room.
• Handle-tax outlier (TN at 1.85% of handle): taxes stakes rather than revenue, which favors high-hold operators and removes the incentive to suppress hold.
• Tribal-compact states (FL, NM, ND, WA, WI): no state GGR tax in the commercial sense; access runs through compact negotiations rather than open licensing.

What State-by-State Legality Means for Operators and Affiliates

Operators must treat this map as commission-engine configuration, not just legal research, because every status tier changes affiliate program mechanics. Unlike the single-license MGA or UKGC model in Europe, US market access is bought state by state: separate operator licensing, separate responsible gambling rules, and in most online states separate vendor or affiliate registration before a partner can be paid for referred players. A program that pays CPA or RevShare on a player from a state where the affiliate holds no registration is a compliance finding waiting to happen.

Three program-design consequences follow. First, qualification rules need a geo attribute: commission events should only fire when the referred player's state resolves to a market where both operator and affiliate are authorized, which is a geo-targeting check at postback time, not a marketing preference. Second, commission economics diverge by state: a RevShare deal calculated on NGR absorbs each state's tax burden inside the deductions line, so identical player lifetime value produces materially different affiliate payouts in New York (51% tax) versus Michigan (8.4%), and negative carryover policies interact with launch-month bonus costs. Many programs run hybrid deals (CPA plus RevShare) tuned per state tier for exactly this reason. Third, launch windows concentrate fraud: new-state launches attract bonus abuse, multi-account signups, and self-referral schemes within days, so fraud screening thresholds should tighten during every launch month. Programs that wire licensing status, tax-adjusted commission terms, and launch-window fraud rules into the tracking platform absorb each new state as configuration; programs that do not, rebuild under pressure.

How to Use and Cite This Tracker

Four rules keep citations of this tracker accurate as the map changes underneath them. The page is updated on a quarterly review cycle plus out-of-cycle updates for major events, so a citation is only as good as the date attached to it.

1. Cite with the as-of date. The current data snapshot is July 18, 2026; the updated date at the top of this page changes with every revision.
2. Quote the tier counts as a set: 39 legal states plus DC, 31 states plus DC online, 8 retail-only, 11 with no legal market. Quoting one number without the definition behind it is how off-by-one errors spread.
3. Re-check the master table row before republishing any single state's tax rate; tax cells changed four times in the last 12 months.
4. Link to this page rather than screenshotting the table, so your readers land on the current version after the next quarterly review.
5. For handle and revenue figures, cite the companion Track360 report on US sports betting handle and revenue by state; this page owns legality, tax, and regulator data only.

Methodology & Sources

Three source classes feed this tracker: enacted bill texts and state statutes, publications from the state regulators named in the master table, and Track360 platform analysis of operator and affiliate program activity across US markets. Legal status and tax rates are taken from statute and regulator guidance; launch dates reflect the first legal wager as reported by the licensing regulator; operator counts are approximations compiled from state license registers and are rounded deliberately. Integrity and market-structure context draws on sports betting integrity reporting from IBIA and industry coverage from SBC News and iGaming Business. Affiliate compliance context reflects FTC endorsement disclosure requirements. Sports event contracts offered on CFTC-regulated prediction markets are outside the scope of this page.

Last updated July 18, 2026. This page is reviewed quarterly (January, April, July, October), with out-of-cycle updates within one review cycle of any state launch, tax change, or enacted legalization bill. Corrections are welcome: if a regulator publication contradicts a cell in the master table, the regulator publication wins and the table is corrected at the next review.

A state-by-state tracker is only useful if it commits to a review cadence. This page is reviewed every quarter, updated within one cycle of every launch or tax change, and keeps a dated changelog so any prior citation can be reconciled against the current map.