Indiana Gambling Laws
Gambling winnings are taxable income in Indiana. Full-year Indiana residents pay tax on all of their gambling winnings, including winnings from riverboats and pari-mutuel horse races (even those winnings from out-of-state sources). Nonresidents pay tax to Indiana on gambling winnings from Indiana's riverboats and pari-mutuel horse racing tracks. Strictly speaking, online gambling is illegal in the state of Indiana with the exception being online sports betting. There are multiple online sportsbooks available for wagering in the state. At this time, the active online sportsbooks in Indiana are.
Strangely enough despite its name Indiana doesn’t have a single tribal casino. The state takes a remarkably inconsistent approach to gambling, imposing some of the stiffest penalties for the simple act of playing a social home game, yet running some of the most profitable gambling operations in the United States on a handful of choice licensed riverboats.
Indiana is also one of a select few states which have chosen to specifically outlaw internet gambling, and what’s more to make it a felony. Professional gambling is also punishable as a felony, as is promotion of gambling.
This week, state gaming officials in Indiana released the full list of sports that fans will be able to wager on. This comes two and a half months after the state passed a new gaming law that allows for sports betting, following a lifting of the federal ban on sports betting outside of Nevada. That ban was lifted in May 2018 when the Supreme Court overturned PASPA, ruling it unconstitutional.
Bettors will be able to wager on baseball, football, and basketball,as expected, but the list allows a whole bunch of other less popular sports like boxing, darts, and the Pro Bowling Tour.
Some of the other, more popular sports events to bet on include:
- UFC
- Boxing
- NASCAR, Formula One, and IndyCar racing
- Summer and Winter Olympics
- Tennis
- Soccer
- Division I collegiate sports
- Pro golf
While the law allows for legal sports betting as of September 1st, state regulators called it a “very aggressive timeline” and are unsure of their ability to meet the deadline.
Sports Betting Law in Indiana
In May, Governor Eric Holcomb signed the Indiana sports gambling bill into law and operators plan to launch retail sports gambling by September 1st, 2019. Since the NFL starts just four days later, Indiana sports gambling operators would be in a great position to take advantage of the most popular sport to bet on.
The law restricts sports betting to state racinos, off-track betting shops, and casinos at this time. Mobile sports betting will come later since it was included in the law, but not for the September 1st deadline.
Other notable information included in the wording of the law:
- A one-time fee of $100,000 for a vendor license
- Yearly renewal fees of $50,000
- State-wide mobile sports gambling
- Restrictions on data sources left up to the Indiana Gaming Commission
- Limits on in-play betting
- A tax rate of 9.5% of adjusted gross revenue
- A portion of tax revenue will go to problem gambling
- No wagering on amateur athletes under 18
- No wagering on esports
The regulations, which were released July 2nd, left out any requirement to use official league data. Instead, legislators left that up to the Indiana Gaming Commission, which drew up the regulations.
Indiana State Gambling Laws
The commission didn’t want to force operators to use league data; however, operators and leagues are free to come to commercial agreements on data sales.