New York Tweaks Betting Laws After Legalization

New York Continues To Tweak Betting Laws After Legalization

The history of gambling in the state of New York has been vast with rejected and approved bills, back and forth debates, and legislative amendments that truly make the state a unique case. In 2021, New York approved a budget to allow online gambling to be legal in the state. Then, for January of 2022, the state of New York was the eighteenth state in the United States to legalize online gambling, bringing the future of gambling to the Big Apple. Many were skeptical of this day arriving with back and forth legislative gambling amendments across the country and many states seemingly unwilling to allow gambling in their state. But New York crossed over to the other side. 

Limited Operator Model In New York

New York’s gambling laws and legislation have been amid controversy since the initial proposal, and the state can’t seem to keep the controversies at bay. As New York is still very new to the gambling industry, there are constant changes until they can find solid ground. The latest news to come out of New York regarding legalized gambling is the approval of a limited operator proposal for the online sports gambling product. This proposed model has been the topic of aggressive debate as the governor is in support of the model while the legislators and those in the gambling industry are against it. This model will be included in the budget for New York State in 2022. 

The New York Lottery, which runs online sports gambling, will have to make the request for the proposals from two online gambling operators under this new model. Then, the licenses will be given by the New York Lottery to DraftKings, Caesars, Rush Street Interactive, and FanDuel. Under this legislation, the four aforementioned companies will be the only authorized sportsbook operators to run in the state of New York. The government in New York did not provide much context for the bid model. However, what we know so far is that the point of the model is to regulate efforts to make sure that there is control maintained over the fairly new gambling industry in the state. Once implemented, the budget legislation will mostly benefit the approved sports betting operators as they will be the only operators in the state to be able to apply for licenses. On the other hand, this could hurt players in the gambling industry, especially those with betting kiosks located in stadiums throughout several sports venues in the state. 

Second Online Gaming Bill Introduced By New York Senate

New York didn’t stop at just the proposed limited operator model in 2022. The New York Senate brought about a second online gaming bill in February. Joseph Addabbo, New York Senator proposed this new bill in February of 2022. This bill was set to grow the state of New York’s gambling industry by the legalization of interactive gaming. Additionally, it would also try to find new ways to provide the residents of New York with added access to platforms in which they can gamble on their favorite online casino games. The drawback of this bill to some was that it would restrict the player's choices by making them only allowed to play games on licensed platforms while in the state of New York. 

This new piece of legislation gives the New York State Gaming Commission the authority to allow casino operators to obtain online casino gaming licenses. This would also allow the commission to have the legal rights to allow Native American tribes in the state of New York to obtain gaming licenses. For this to happen, however, the New York State Gaming Commission must receive a signed mobile interactive gaming wagering agreement from the Native American Tribe trying to obtain a license. To be eligible for the new license, this must also be included as a part of a valid tribal/state gaming compact.

What Does This Mean for New York Bettors?

Once passed, the registered casino operators who obtained their licenses will be allowed to use two or fewer wagering shells or platforms. However, these two platforms must be approved by the New York State Gaming Commission. Said operators also have to pay an additional $2 million, while the partners who run and operate the online brands have to pay a $10 million one-time only fee.

This bill was brought to the floor just a month after online sports betting went legal and launched in the state of New York. In one month alone, New York received almost $2 million from tax revenue. This alone shows the sheer amount of growth potential for revenue in the gambling industry, both online and in-person. Senator Joseph Addabbo brought this bill up because he believes that, should the bill be approved, then the state of New York will be able to receive upwards of $120 million in tax revenue, putting the money back into the lives of the state’s residents. 

This second online gambling bill was sent to the Senate Committee on Racing, Gaming, and Wagering for the state of New York, where Senator Joseph Addabbo is the chair of the committee. The bill will have to be approved in a short amount of time as the current session of legislation will end. If the bill does not pass, it will have to come back up in the next session, which will start the process over again from the beginning. 

Beyond New York Moving Forward

Even with all the additional restrictions and legislation being brought up, the New York online gambling process seems to be in line with the current proceeding of bringing on legal online gambling in other states in the US. While there was a lot of pushback in the state initially, New York has been providing access to online gambling activities to New York’s 20+ million residents. Because of this, the gambling industry has shown the ability to show significant benefits to the state of New York through taxes and revenue.

With the shown success of the taxes and revenue, there seems to be a strong chance that other states will follow in the footsteps of New York and legalize gambling. Maryland for instance seems to be a state that is on track to change its position on the matter, especially when considering the ways that the states can benefit from the gambling industry. While it may be bold, there could be upwards of 10 new states to allow legal online casino and sports betting by this time next year. And in just a few years, we could see legal betting across the entire United States.