NCAA March Madness Betting Could Top $2.7B: What MA Allows

MASSACHUSETTS — Residents of Massachusetts can place wagers online for the biggest sports betting events of the year, the NCAA March Madness men’s and women’s basketball tournaments, which industry experts expect to result in $2.7 billion in wagers nationwide.

Sports wagering is now legal in 38 states and the District of Columbia. Online betting is legal in most but not all of them. About a dozen states prohibit betting on college games involving home-state teams. Four New England states — Connecticut, Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Vermont — make exceptions for tournaments. And Maryland and Ohio ban bets on how many points, rebounds or assists a particular player puts on the board.

In Massachusetts, betting became legal at the start of 2023 for retail, and on March 10, 2023 for online gambling. Both types of betting are taxed, with revenues going toward these categories:

• 45% to General Fund
• 17.5% to Workforce Investment Trust Fund
• 27.5% to Gaming Local Aid Fund
• 1% to Youth Development and Achievement Fund
• 9% to Public Health Trust Fund, which supports problem gambling research, prevention, intervention treatment, and recovery support services

Men’s tournament play begins Tuesday.

The women’s tournament gets underway on Wednesday.

No men's teams made the tournament, but Holy Cross will serve as the lone hope to get into the field of 64 when they face UT Martin in a play-in game for a 16-seed this week.

Sports betting has expanded since 2018, when the Supreme Court struck down a federal ban on state laws that allowed for sports betting

Betting on all sports totaled $121 billion in 2023, an increase of 30 percent from 2022, according to the American Gaming Association. Sportsbooks saw about $11 billion in revenue last year, up from about $7.5 billion in 2022, the group said.

David Foreman, vice president of research for the American Gaming Association, told The Associated Press that March Madness is the biggest kind of individual event of the year for sports betting

The Super Bowl also draws big bets, but it's only one game between two NFL teams. The NCAA Division 1 men's and women's basketball tournaments feature 136 teams playing 134 games over three weeks.

The Associated Press contributed reporting.