Casinos in Rhode Island lost nearly $900,000 on sports betting in February after winning bets for the Super Bowl and other professional sports were paid out, the state lottery said Friday.
That leaves Rhode Island with about $150,000 in revenue from sports betting since the late November launch. The state had projected it would get $11.5 million from the new market this fiscal year, which ends June 30.
The lottery released figures for bets placed at Twin River Casino in Lincoln and Tiverton. Gamblers placed about $20.7 million in wagers in February. The casinos paid nearly $21.6 million on winning bets. The state gets 51 percent of sports betting revenue, after subtracting expenses.
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Other states with legal sportsbooks that launched in the past year didn’t bring in as much in February as they had in preceding months. New Jersey’s physical sportsbooks had a tax bill of negative $6,000 for the month, but the online ones brought the state $1.7 million.
Overall, most of the states with newly legal sports betting are on pace to fall short of their revenue projections, but none are lagging as far behind as Rhode Island.
Rhode Island is just 1.3 percent of the way to its $11.5 million goal. Rhode Island Department of Revenue spokesman Paul Grimaldi said Friday that it will obviously be difficult to meet that goal and that the budget will have to be adjusted.
‘‘We’ll be better able to project revenue as we get more experience,’’ he said. ‘‘I think the people who set their budget gave their best estimates based on the information they had and what the consultants were telling them. In some ways, we’re learning a hard lesson.’’
Revenue for March is looking far better than February’s figures due to the NCAA Tournament, Grimaldi said. Gamblers wagered $6.4 million during the first round of the tournament and the state is expecting about $500,000 in revenue from just that round, he added.
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Governor Gina Raimondo signed a bill Monday to allow sports betting to move online.