New Jersey governor Phil Murphy has plans to spend $58.1 billion this year and he wants to finance some of that by raising sports betting and igaming taxes among other levies.
The proposal, which Murphy shared on Tuesday (25 February), is the latest gambling and sports betting tax increase proposed in the US in the last year. It feels somewhat ironic, in that Murphy’s name is on the lawsuit that overturned the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act (PASPA) in 2018. Since then, 38 states have launched some form of sports betting (Missouri is also set to launch later this year), with two of those hiking their original sports betting tax rates.
Murphy proposes hiking both the sports betting and igaming tax rates to 25%, up from 13% and 15%, respectively.
“This tax increase would be a wrong turn for New Jersey,” industry lobbyist Jeremy Kudon countered in a statement on behalf of the Sports Betting Alliance (SBA). “Since New Jersey first launched regulated sports betting seven..