Indiana betting integrity fee equivalent to 39.3% revenue tax

Gambling industry stakeholders are pushing back against an Indiana legislator’s plan to impose a punitive ‘integrity fee’ on legal sports betting handle.

On Monday, Indiana state Rep. Alan Morrison (pictured) introduced HB 1325, a bill to legalize sports betting – including online and mobile wagers – at state-licensed gaming operators if the US Supreme Court strikes down the federal sports betting prohibition.

Morrison’s bill contained a wrinkle heretofore unseen in US gambling legislation: a 1% tax on sports betting handle that would be redirected to the ‘sports governing bodies’ on whose games Indiana punters would be wagering.

This ‘integrity fee’, which would be in addition to a 9.25% tax on betting revenue and a 0.25% federal tax on betting handle, is ostensibly intended to fund efforts to combat match-fixing, point-shaving and other scourges that allegedly accompany legal betting.