At 7:00 p.m., before tip-off of a Big Ten game in Bloomington, a bettor in Indianapolis can back a Hoosiers guard to score more than 14.5 points. At 7:01, with the ball in the air, that market is gone from every licensed app in the state. Indiana is the clearest example in the country of a rule that treats in-play betting differently from pregame betting, and it applies only to college players.
Indiana’s market at a glance
Sports betting in Indiana has been legal since 2019, online statewide and at retail sportsbooks in the state’s casinos and racinos. The minimum age is 21, the Indiana Gaming Commission regulates the market, and every online wager must come from a phone located inside Indiana.
It was one of the first states to move after the 2018 Supreme Court ruling. Retail books opened on September 1, 2019, and mobile apps followed that fall.
Indiana is also the rare state surrounded by legal markets, and the legal sports betting states map shows it as an island of one color. Illinois, Michigan, Ohio and Kentucky all have statewide online betting, so a trip across any border moves a bettor from one regulated system into another.
How the 2019 law came together
House Enrolled Act 1015 was a broad gaming bill that also dealt with casino relocations. The General Assembly approved it on April 25, 2019, and Governor Eric Holcomb signed it in May.
Mobile betting nearly fell out. A committee stripped it from the bill, and a conference committee added it back in at the last minute. That reversal is the reason Indiana’s online market exists at all. The final law also skipped the in-person registration requirement some early states imposed, so accounts could be opened remotely.
The tax was set at 9.5 percent of adjusted gross revenue, with a portion going to problem gambling services. Vendor licenses cost $100,000 up front and $50,000 a year to renew. The law excluded esports and any event involving amateur athletes under 18.
The in-play college prop rule, explained
What is banned and what is not
The Commission bars in-play proposition wagers on individual college athletes. “In-play” means any bet placed after the event has started. Before tip-off or kickoff, college player props are available, subject to the approved catalog. After the start, they are not, while in-play bets on the game itself, such as the live spread, total and moneyline, stay open.
So in a Purdue basketball game a bettor can still take Purdue -3.5 at halftime, or the second-half total. What disappears is anything tied to one college player’s performance once the game is under way.
The arithmetic of the allowed bet is ordinary. Suppose the book posts a second-half line at the break, Purdue -3.5 at -110 for the final twenty minutes only. That price means staking $110 to win $100, so a $22 bet wins $22 × 100 ÷ 110 = $20.00. If Purdue wins the second half by four or more, the ticket pays $42.00 in total; by three or fewer, or a loss, and the $22 is gone. The half-point removes the push. A halftime wager counts as in-play under the rule, because the game has already started. None of that involves a single player, so it is legal in-play under Indiana’s rule, while a live bet on the same team’s center grabbing ten rebounds is not.
Why in-play specifically
The concern behind rules like this is harassment of college athletes and the integrity risk of markets that one player can influence during a game. An in-play prop can be settled by a single possession, which makes it the easiest market to target.
In 2026 the NCAA asked state regulators to go further and ban college player props outright. Indiana’s commission first tabled the request to gather information, then voted unanimously to reject the ban on pregame props, with commissioners saying athlete harassment was better handled by the legislature. The in-play ban stayed as it was.
In-state teams
Unlike Illinois next door, Indiana allows bets on its own college teams. Indiana, Purdue, Notre Dame, Butler and the rest are on the board, under the same in-play prop rule as everyone else.
Live betting in practice: an Indiana Fever example
Pro sports carry no such limit. During an Indiana Fever or Pacers game, in-play player props are available, along with the live spread, the live total and quarter markets.
Take a worked example. Midway through the third quarter, a player’s live points prop sits at 18.5, with the over at +110. A $30 bet on the over returns $30 × 110 ÷ 100 = $33.00 in profit if the player finishes with 19 or more, plus the $30 stake for $63.00 total.
Now compare the price. At +110 the implied probability is 100 ÷ 210 = 47.62 percent. If the under is priced at -140, its implied probability is 140 ÷ 240 = 58.33 percent. The pair adds up to 105.95 percent, so almost six points of margin sit on that one market, more than on a typical pregame line. A live prop is often the most expensive bet on the screen.
The same market on a college player in the same building on a different night would not be offered at all after tip-off.
To the north, Michigan reports no college restrictions at all, so a South Bend fan who crosses into Niles can find in-play markets on a Notre Dame player that Indiana would refuse once the game starts, if the Michigan sportsbook offers them. To the south, Kentucky’s 2026 law bans props on Kentucky college athletes but leaves other schools alone.
Taxes on winnings
Gambling winnings are income in Indiana. The state’s flat individual rate is about 3 percent for 2026, with most published sources listing 2.95 percent, and every county levies its own local income tax on top. Federally, the IRS taxes all gambling winnings, and from tax year 2026 losses can be deducted only up to 90 percent of their amount and only by itemizers.
On the $33.00 profit in the example above, a 2.95 percent state rate means $0.97 to Indiana before county tax. That sounds trivial on one ticket. Across a season of in-play betting it is a reason to keep records, because the taxable figure is winnings, not net profit, and the 90 percent cap on losses means a break-even year can still produce a tax bill.
Geolocation and the Chicago corridor
Indiana’s location rule is the same as everywhere: the phone must be inside the state when the bet is placed. Residency is irrelevant.
The northwest corner shows how that plays out. Before Illinois launched online betting in June 2020, bettors from the Chicago area could cross into Hammond, a few minutes from the city, and bet legally through Indiana apps. Today both sides of the line are legal markets with different rules. A Chicagoan standing in Indiana can bet on Illinois college teams, subject to Indiana’s approved catalog, even though Illinois itself bans those bets, because Indiana’s rules apply to a phone in Indiana.
That same bettor still cannot place an in-play prop on an Illinois college player, because Indiana’s own in-play college rule follows the phone too. Cross back into Illinois and the Illinois catalog takes over, where bets on Illinois college teams are off the board entirely.
Two ways to shut the door on yourself
Indiana runs two separate self-exclusion programs, and the difference matters for anyone who bets mostly on a phone.
The Voluntary Exclusion Program is the broad one. Enrollment lasts one year, five years or a lifetime, and it covers every Indiana casino, every sports wagering operator and the Four Winds South Bend casino. Sign-up happens at the Commission’s office in Indianapolis, at any Indiana casino or through an approved treatment provider. A new law, HB 1052, took effect on July 1, 2026 and changed parts of that program.
The Internet Self-Restriction Program is narrower. It applies only to mobile sports wagering, which suits someone who wants to stop betting live on a phone without being barred from a casino buffet. If you want a break from in-play betting specifically, this is the program aimed at it.
For immediate help, the Indiana Problem Gambling Help Line, 1-800-9-WITH-IT (1-800-994-8448), answers around the clock, and texting INGAMB to 53342 reaches the same service. The national lines on the responsible gambling page work in Indiana too.
The side-track: a law that almost had no apps
The detail most often forgotten about Indiana’s 2019 law is how close it came to being retail only. If the committee version had survived, Indiana would have looked like Mississippi or Montana, states where a bet must be placed at a physical counter. Live betting there means standing in a casino with a screen overhead.
Instead the conference committee restored mobile wagering at the last minute, and the first fall of legal betting included apps. Seven years later, the state’s most distinctive rule is about exactly the kind of bet only a phone makes practical: a college player’s next basket, which Indiana stops taking the moment the game begins.