New York tribal casinos participate in the sports betting boom with retail sportsbooks in their upstate gaming halls. But they were shut out of the mobile option.
In the summer of 2021, New York leaders were at odds over how to bring tribes to the table. Then-Governor Andrew Cuomo favored a minimal number of operators, none of them part of tribal interests, according to Pechanga.net.
State Senator Joe Addabbo and Assemblyman J. Gary Pretlow, chairmen of their bodies’ respective gaming committees, wanted a large number of licenses.
Cuomo pushed for four, with the eventual number set at nine.
Pretlow and Addabbo met with leaders of the Mohawk, Oneida and Seneca tribes at the time.
“Our plan gave them a seat at the table. Now they just have entrance into the room,” Pretlow told Sports Handle’s Matt Rybaltowski at the time. “It’s kind of unfair to them.”
The first year, which ended January 8, proved lucrative beyond measure. Bettors wagered $16.2 billion with operators collecting $1.36 billion combined in gross gaming revenue (GGR), giving the state nearly $700 million in new taxes.
Last week, Addabbo introduced SB 1962, which would expand the number of sports betting operators from nine to 14 by New Year’s Day of 2024 and to 16 by the following January 1. Along the way, the tax rate would fall to 35 percent next January and to 25 percent the following year.
“When Gary and I did the first mobile sports betting bill, we had everybody in the tent: Native Americans, kiosks, racetracks, stadiums, under the belief that access would be one of the key aspects for success,” Addabbo said. “I just think it’s the right thing to do to be inclusive.”
If the servers are placed outside of the tribal land, the state could tax the revenues, Addabbo said.
“We were in a good place with the Native Americans and, somewhere down the line, maybe we will be again,” Addabbo said. “I knew there were opportunities to partner with someone and maybe the opportunity will exist down the line. The only way to solve or satisfy the state constitution is to have the server on our land. That would be the first time in my recollection we’ve made money off their bets.”
According to Kathryn Rand and Steven Light of the Institute for the Study of Tribal Gaming Law and Policy at the University of North Dakota, tribes have two primary models to gain access to sports betting: by relying on existing compacts or by working with state governments to establish betting operations off tribal land, which fits Addabbo’s definition.
