Washington D.C. Sports Betting Numbers Dip in December

Article By Richard Janvrin Last Updated: Jan 28^th, 2022 · 2 min read

Washington D.C. Sports Betting Numbers Dip in December — © PA

By every available sports betting monetary metric, Washington D.C. was down when comparing December 2021 to November 2021.

The total sports betting handle in D.C. was $19,220,228 in December, which was a 10.3% decrease from November’s $21,419,455.

Gambet, the D.C. lottery online sportsbook, accounted for nearly $5 million of the December handle, coming in with $4,967,239.

Massive Gaming and Tax Revenue Losses

The handle dropping 10.3% is not anything to ignore, but the Gross Gaming Revenue and Sports Betting Tax Revenue numbers took a massive hit in December as compared to November.

In both categories, D.C. saw a 78.2% drop.

The gross gaming revenue went from $3,358,922 in November to $732,989 in December while the tax revenue went from $335,893 to $73,299.

Of course, these figures are correlated together as the lower the revenue equates to lower tax revenue.

On the bright side, D.C. was still in the positive as it headed into the NFL playoffs.

Gambet Revenue Also Down

With such a dramatic dip in revenue, it shouldn’t be any surprise that Gambet also experienced a loss.

However, it was not a 78.2% loss.

In December, Gambet brought in $665,718 as opposed to $1,076,000 in November. This amount includes the amount played minus amounts won.

This was a 38.1% loss.

The non-Gambet places to wager in D.C. include Caesars Sportsbook at Capital One Arena, BetMGM Sportsbook at Nationals Park, and Grand Central sportsbook and sports bar on 18th St. — the first Class B licensee in D.C.

January 2022 Outlook

While these are notable losses, D.C. could see a rebound when it comes to January numbers.

While no D.C. teams or surrounding area teams are in the NFL playoffs, the playoffs bring plenty of promotions that will also drive players to wager on top of wanting to just get in on the excitement of the postseason.

Before January ends, D.C. will have taken wagers from the final two weeks of the regular season, the Wild Card games, the Divisional Round, and the Conference Championship games.