Tennessee is preparing for Super Bowl LXIV in February 2030 at the new Nissan Stadium in Nashville, and officials expect hosting the game to lift sports-betting tax revenue beyond the normal Super Bowl spike.
Stephanie Maxwell, deputy director of the Tennessee Sports Wagering Council, said the state expects more people to travel to Tennessee and place bets physically in the state, which would increase the amount of tax collected from wagering.
The state taxes sports bets placed legally within Tennessee, regardless of whether the bettor is a Tennessee resident. Maxwell said she does not know how much additional revenue the Super Bowl will generate.
Tennessee collects taxes based on the wagered amount, not on winnings or other measures, and the council rules define a “Bettor,” “Patron,” or “Player” as someone physically present in Tennessee when placing a wager.
The council rules also state that bettors must be at least 21 years old and must not be prohibited from placing a wager under Tennessee’s Sports Gaming Act. The rules define “Gross Handle” as gross wagers less cancelled or voided wagers over a specified period of time.
Outside Tennessee’s legal sportsbook system, the article says prediction markets are not covered by the state’s taxing regime and are regulated by the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC). It also says Tennessee does not capture tax revenue from bets placed on prediction-market platforms such as Kalshi and Polymarket.
Maxwell told readers to check that they are betting with a licensed, regulated sports book. The article adds that Tennessee sees no tax revenue from bets placed with illegal sports betting books that are not licensed and registered with the state.
The article says 2025 was an early indicator of the Super Bowl effect, with Tennessee collecting over $7.6 million in sports betting taxes in February, when the game took place.
For a sense of the broader potential windfall from hosting, the article cites a 2025 Tourism Economics study commissioned by the Nashville Visitors Corp. It found Super Bowl events could generate $386 million in direct spending for Tennessee and $706 million in total economic impact.
Tennessee’s sports-betting taxes have also been tied to scholarship funding. The article says that before 2025, sports betting taxes supported scholarships funded by Tennessee lottery sales taxes, but after passage of the Education Freedom Scholarship Act, 80% of sports wagering revenue was reallocated in 2025.
The article further says the lottery scholarship fund is facing an $80 million deficit, and that the Education Freedom Scholarship Act enrolls its first students in fall 2025, with expansion in 2026 by Republican lawmakers.
For additional fiscal context, the American Gaming Association’s “Tennessee Overview” estimates Tennessee’s 2025 online sports-betting gross gaming revenue at $700.2 million and sports-betting tax revenue at $107.6 million. It also states that online sports betting is taxed at 1.85% of handle and that a 0.25% federal excise tax on wagering handle applies before the state tax.
Maxwell said Tennessee will continue its enforcement efforts against illegal operators up to and around the Super Bowl, with the next test arriving in February 2030.
