Sports bettors in North Carolina are betting big.

They wagered more than $612 million in October, the third-highest monthly total since the state launched sports betting in mid-March, according to a report issued by the North Carolina State Lottery Commission on Tuesday.

The bettors were paid more than $560 million in winnings.

Now a state lawmaker is planning to change the way bettors are taxed on their winnings. State Rep. Erin Pare, a Republican from Holly Springs, told WRAL that she would file a bill in January to allow losses to be deducted from tax liability for gambling winnings.

Federal law treats gambling winnings like capital gains, you can offset your incomes with losses and simply pay tax on the net gain. You cannot write off more than your winnings.

But North Carolina law doesn’t do that.

“This is a reasonable, commonsense bill,” Pare said. “I think you’re going to see a lot of bipartisan support for it in the General Assembly.”

Gov. Roy Cooper supported a change in the law as did former Rep. Jason Saine, the lead sponsor on the sports gambling law. But the effort went nowhere in 2024. Pare said she would make it retroactive to the beginning of sports betting in March 2024.

“It’s fair and commonsense,” said Pare, who said she has not wagered on sports.

Bettors have been paid more than $3.5 billion in winnings from the state’s eight licensed sports betting operators. They have wagered more than $4.1 billion total, including $3.7 billion in real money wagers, not free, bonus or promotional bets.

That’s a loss of around $200 million, just on real money wagers.

If bettors were taxed on their winnings without being able to deduct their losses, based on the state’s flat 4.25% income tax rate, that’s nearly $160 million.

Pare said changing the law could cost the state between $20 million and $25 million based on other states.

James Joyce, a bettor from Holly Springs, was surprised in June to learn about North Carolina’s law. He and his friends had been placing dozens of bets a day, winning and losing tens of thousands of dollars a month to make a small profit in the end.

That could leave them with a significant tax bill.

“Once we found out that we’re just getting taxed on winnings and can’t deduct our losses like the federal way, we just stopped because it’s tough enough to beat the sportsbook, much less the state,” he said.

Plenty of others are still wagering, though.

The $612 million figure in October trailed March’s $659 million and April’s $648 million. But those figures were inflated by promotional bets as the state’s eight licensed sports betting operators sought to attract new customers.

Bettors used more of their own money in October than in any other month.

In October, more than $589 million of the $612 million bet was actual paid wagering revenues. Promotional wagering accounted for just under $23 million total. In March more than $202 million was promotional wagering and in April that figure was nearly $80 million.

The state collected more than $8.7 million in taxes from the operators who had gross wagering revenue of $48.6 million. The state charges an 18% tax on gross wagering revenue, which is total wagering revenue minus the amount paid as winnings.

Bettors in the state has wagered more than $4.1 billion on sports since the mid-March launch. In September and October, in the heart of football season, bettors have wagered more than $1.1 billion.

In the first four months of the fiscal year, the state has collected more than $35 million in taxes from sports betting operators. In four months of sports betting last fiscal year, from the mid-March launch until the end of June, the operators paid $49.5 million in taxes.

Public universities in the UNC system, outside of UNC and NC State, receive a portion of the tax money. The schools’ athletic departments have received more than $510,000 from sports betting tax revenue since the start of the fiscal year in July through the end of September.

The athletic departments received more than $828,000 for the last fiscal year.

App State is planning to use $3.3 million in sports betting revenue to help fund a new indoor practice facility for football.

At UNC-Pembroke, the money is being used to fill holes that were created after the coronavirus pandemic. The athletic department lost $1.1 million in fee revenue since COVID, UNC-Pembroke athletic director Dick Christy told WRAL. The athletic department has 425 athletes.

“To find that synergy of new revenue was an absolute blessing for us,” Christy said.