New York state lawmakers reconvened for the new session last week as various efforts to expand legal gambling in the state are expected to be considered. Most prominent among them are online gaming and online poker, a natural next step to the online sports betting market, which was launched in January 2021.
In an interview with the NY Sports Day news site, New York state Senator Joseph Addabbo said chances are good for approval of iGaming this year.
“We’re not getting billions of dollars of (federal) aid,” he said, noting that online gambling will make up for deficits in local budgets.
The lawmakers have until April to approve a gambling expansion bill, as the state budget, which is due at that time, must include the approved bill.
“I think iGaming is just sitting there waiting for us to work on,” Addabbo told NY Sports Day. Addabbo, a longtime advocate of iGaming in New York, sponsored a bill to legalize online gaming, S8412, which has been sitting in the Senate Finance Committee since last April. The bill sets the tax rate at 25 percent of iGaming revenues.
Addabbo told the publication that online casino revenues will eclipse those of sports betting, which generated more than $13 billion in revenue last year, as the largest online sports betting market in the U.S.
The sponsor memo to S8412 estimates the state would generate around $475 million annually in tax revenue, in addition to $150 million in one-time license fees from iGaming operators.
