New York Governor Andrew Cuomo has again presented the state’s casinos with a major disappointment in the form of a budget proposal for the next fiscal year that does not call for the legalization of mobile betting.
That means New Yorkers will still have to travel to a casino if they want to bet on a sporting event. This is in line with current state law, which restricts wagering to the physical confines of the dedicated betting lounges at the four upstate commercial casinos𑁋Rivers Resort & Casino in Schenectady; Tioga Downs near Binghamton; Resorts World Catskills near Monticello; and del Lago Casino & Resort in the Finger Lakes𑁋and the casinos operated by the Oneida, Seneca and Mohawk Indian nations.
The spending plan does include one slight concession that will allow bettors to place their wagers from other areas of the casinos.
Not surprisingly, advocates of mobile betting complained anew that the state is losing tens of millions of dollars to neighboring jurisdictions that allow mobile betting, , principally New Jersey, the closest state to New York City.
“It is frustrating to know we will have to make these tough (budget) decisions when there is money out there just waiting for us to capture, but we refuse to take advantage of it,” said Queens Democrat Joseph Addabbo, who has been able in past years to get remote wagering bills passed in the state Senate only to see them die in the Assembly without a vote. “Mobile sports betting is benefitting New Jersey𑁋with approximately 25 percent of the state’s mobile wagering business coming from New York residents,” he said, “and it could provide the same positive results for New York.”
Cuomo does not necessarily disagree. With the state facing a $6 billion deficit in the next fiscal year, his budget envisions no new revenues from the casinos. But he maintains that legalizing betting over the internet requires an amendment to the state Constitution, a lengthy and uncertain process that depends on the assent of successive sessions of the Legislature and approval in a voter referendum. And without the governor on board, the political hurdles up to now have proved too difficult to surmount.
Sports betting was authorized at the commercial casinos in the legislation that authorized them back in 2013. At the time, a federal ban was in place that restricted the industry to Nevada and in limited form to three other states. After years of failed efforts by New Jersey to get the ban rescinded, the U.S. Supreme Court finally complied in May 2018. Several states have since legalized it. New York enacted its regulations last June, and books began opening in the state’s casinos last summer.
“We estimate that New York will only realize about 5 percent of its true sports betting potential if things stay as they are now,” said Chris Grove, managing director of Eilers & Krejcik Gaming, a national industry research firm.
“The reality,” he added, “is that consumers want convenient ways to bet, and the status quo for sports betting in New York is anything but. If the state is serious about siphoning off demand from the illegal market and generating real tax revenue, it needs to add online sports betting to the mix.”
