Super Bowl Betting: How Much Revenue Is California Losing Out On?

Jan 16th, 2026 11:33 AM EST

The Super Bowl will be held in California for the 14th time on Feb. 8. (Kirby Lee-Imagn Images)

California is gearing up to host Super Bowl 60 on Feb. 8 at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara. However, sports betting is still not legal in the state of California.

Bookies.com, as part of our sports betting insight, developed exclusive figures projecting an estimated total handle and tax profit that the state would report from the highly anticipated 60th Super Bowl, coming up with a full month estimate for each category. To do so, we estimated the tax profit based on a 10% tax rate; however, legal California sports betting could be significantly higher and more comparable to states such as New York.

Projected California Sports Betting Figures For Super Bowl

Total Handle	$3,302,342,541
Total Revenue	$247,234,020
Total Taxes*	$24,723,402

*Projection based on conservative 10% tax rate, could be significantly higher

These figures are exclusive projections from Bookies.com, where you will find the best sports betting promo codes around.

How We Determined California’s Lost Sports Betting Dollars

New York is the most populous state that has a competitive, legal online sports betting market. So we used the Empire State’s data in February to give us a benchmark for the Golden State.

Since launching online sports betting in January 2022, New York has seen four February wagering handles totaling $6,767,365,675 in total, or $1,691,841,419 on average, which is the figure we used to compile a prospective California sports betting handle estimate for February.

To get there, we divided New York’s average sports betting handle in February by the state’s population (20,201,249), which gave us a handle per resident figure of $83.75.

We then multiplied that $83.75 average figure by California’s Census population (39,431,263) to come up with a similar February handle estimate for the state hosting Super Bowl 60. That total was $3,302,342,541.

Such an increase makes sense, given how California’s population is roughly twice that of New York’s. The country’s most populous state would blow the roof off the largest wagering handle to date (that being New York’s $2,647,477,837 total in October 2024).

What About California Revenue & Taxes?

From there, we followed a similar pattern to compile California’s estimated wagering revenue and tax dollars derived from online sportsbook apps. We used New York’s average revenue total over the past four years ($126,612,045) and divided it by the Golden State’s Census population.

That exercise gave us California’s revenue per resident figure ($6.27), which we once again multiplied by the state’s population to come up with our overall revenue estimate of $247,234,020.

From there, our sample 10% tax rate means that California sports betting would have generated $24,723,402 in tax dollars during the month that Super Bowl LX hits Santa Clara. This illustrates the vast amount of lost revenue that the state at large is missing out on by not having sports betting on the books in 2026.

And that does not even account for the amount of money that could be wagered by visitors attending the Super Bowl itself.

California sports betting would rake in an even more historic amount of dough if the state followed New York’s 51% tax rate. That rate would equate to a February wagering tax bill of $126,254,450, which is well north of the $94,224,398 that the Empire State brought in last February.

New York February Handles Since OSB Launch (Jan. 2022-Present)

2022: $1,534,078,892
2023: $1,474,299,932
2024: $1,779,072,192
2025: $1,979,914,659

Total Handle: $6,767,365,675 ($1,691,841,419 average)

NY Census Population: 20,201,249

Handle Per Resident: $335 (five-year average)/$83.75 (average)

California Census Population: 39,431,263

California February Estimate (Population x Average Handle Per Resident): $3,302,342,541

New York Sports Betting February Revenue Since 2022

2022: $82,149,599
2023: $108,470,835
2024: $131,315,621
2025: $184,512,125

Total Revenue: $506,448,180 ($126,612,045 average)

Revenue Per Resident: $25.07 (five-year average)/$6.27 (average)

CA Revenue Estimate: $247,234,020

CA Tax Estimate (10%): $24,723,402

For now, all we can do is look at the sheer volume of dollars that California is missing out on this year with the biggest NFL betting event coming to the state.

From our research, it seems like that decision will ultimately haunt California leaders more than any on-field decisions that make the difference between victory and defeat on Feb. 8 inside Levi’s Stadium.