Rush Street Interactive (RSI) is considering making changes to its house rules elsewhere in the U.S. as lawmakers across the country consider tax rate changes for online sports betting.
The owner of BetRivers released its latest earnings report, supplemented by an earnings call that included additional context regarding the company’s bottom line and its operational plans for the future. During the earnings call, RSI shared that the company may explore implementing a bet limit in other markets that mirrors its BetRivers limit in Illinois.
Last year, BetRivers responded to Illinois’ per-wager tax by requiring customers to bet a minimum of $1 per wager. In January, the company increased its minimum bet amount to $5.
“At this point, we’re not passing through a transaction fee like some of our competitors are,” said RSI President and Chief Financial Officer Kyle Sauers during the Q4 2025 earnings call. “We’ve chosen to use a minimum bet strategy. Could we use that in other markets in response to some sort of different tax structure? Absolutely.”
RSI reacts to new tax obligations in Illinois
RSI joined the contingent of Illinois-licensed sports betting operators that made adjustments to their house rules following a series of tax-related modifications.
In 2024, Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker approved a budget that taxed sports betting operators on a sliding scale, up to a ceiling of 40% on all adjusted gaming revenue above $200m. Illinois then made its most controversial tax-related change in 2025, with the state enforcing a new per-wager tax on sports betting. The tax requirement charges online sportsbooks 25 cents per wager. That per-wager tax jumps to 50 cents after the first 20 million wagers in a year.
A local tax in Chicago was also implemented as part of Mayor Brandon Johnson’s latest budget, with operators being taxed at 10.25% rate on all bets placed by customers within the city limits.
“The minimum bet was not necessarily in response to the Chicago tax…” continued Sauers. “I think we want to make sure we’re using all the levers we have that we think make the most sense both for us financially as a company and so that we’re treating players as fairly as we can under a construct.”
In addition to BetRivers, operators including BetMGM and Hard Rock also raised their bet limits in Illinois. Meanwhile, DraftKings, FanDuel and Fanatics are passing the per-wager tax to customers via transaction fees, which range between 25 cents and 50 cents per wager.
Other states mulling tax changes
Other U.S. markets have also recently implemented new tax rates for sports betting. Louisiana increased its tax rate for online wagering in 2025 from 15% to 21.5%. In Maryland, lawmakers and key stakeholders approved a 20% tax rate, up from 15%.
More online sports betting tax changes are being considered in 2026 as key stakeholders look to sports betting to generate additional revenue.
Earlier this month, Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs proposed an executive budget that aims to increase the state’s tax rate on sports betting from 10% of revenue to 45% for “large operators.” The operators that would face the tax increase are those that report more than $75m in monthly handle. Active sportsbooks in Arizona that could face that tax increase include FanDuel, DraftKings and BetMGM. Any Arizona operator that does not reach the $75m monthly handle threshold will continue to be taxed at a 10% rate.
Michigan could implement the same per-wager tax as Illinois after Gov. Gretchen Whitmer drafted an executive budget that proposes the tax requirement to close a $1.8bn budget gap. The per-wager tax would also start out at 25 cents, before increasing to 50 cents after the first 20 million wagers in a year. According to Whitmer’s budget, the charge could generate approximately $38.8m in revenue in FY2027, and would be in addition to the Wolverine State’s current 8.4% sports betting tax rate.
Whitmer’s budget also proposed raising the highest marginal tax rate for online casino from 28% to 36%. Michigan is a key iCasino market for BetRivers.
Elsewhere, a lawmaker in West Virginia also introduced a measure to increase the state’s tax rate to 25% of an operator’s gross revenue, a considerable increase on the current tax rate of 10%.
RSI’s latest earnings results
RSI reported $324.9m in revenue in Q4 2025, a 28% increase year-over-year. The company’s net income for the quarter closed at $19.1m, up from $6.5m for the same period last year. Adjusted EBITDA for RSI reached $44.1m in Q4 2025. By comparison, the company posted an adjusted EBITDA of $30.6m in the same period the previous year.
Full-year revenue for RSI in 2025 reached $1.1bn, a 24% uptick compared to 2024. Meanwhile, the operator projected full-year revenue in 2026 to range between $1.3bn and $1.4bn.
