New York Governor Andrew Cuomo remains adamantly opposed to legislation to institute mobile sports betting, a position that state Senator Joseph Addabbo, a leading proponent of legalization, called “astonishing” in light of the massive crisis the Covid-19 epidemic has visited upon the state.
According to Legal Sports Report, a U.S.-facing news site covering the online sports betting and fantasy sports industries, negotiations between lawmakers and the Cuomo administration to include remote betting in the state budget have broken down over the governor’s stance that extending land-based betting, which is legal in New York’s casinos, to the internet requires an amendment to the state Constitution.
The talks also failed to persuade the administration to rescind a moratorium that blocks the legalization of casinos in New York City until 2023.
It appears that Addabbo and other proponents in the Legislature believed the economic and health-care disaster the epidemic has wrought upon New York𑁋the state hardest-hit by the virus so far𑁋would move Cuomo off his opposition, and they’re more than disappointed that it has not.
“What is so astonishing is that we had a need for revenue before the virus crisis, and we’re still being asked to make cuts to health care,” Addabbo said. “Unbelievable. Totally irresponsible.”
Normally, the Senate and Assembly submit individual budget proposals around the middle of March as a starting point for negotiations with the administration aimed at producing a final spending plan by April 1.
In response to the Covid-19 crisis, the two chambers scratched their proposals and began negotiating with the governor early in hopes of completing the process by the end of March.
With Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie siding with Cuomo in opposition to legalization by legislation it was doubtful remote betting would have made the cut in the lower house anyway. Nevertheless, both Addabbo, who believes he can steer a bill through the Senate, and his ally in the Assembly, Gary Pretlow, thought that this go-round time was firmly on their side.
Addabbo, for one, feels he and Pretlow have addressed every concern Cuomo has raised on the constitutionality of a legislative solution.
“All the governor and the speaker are doing is delaying the inevitable because mobile sports betting in New York is not a matter of ‘if’ but ‘when,’ and we need the revenue now,” he said.
Addabbo, who plans to continue to press his case, said he will wait to see what’s in the final budget before deciding how to move forward. However, it was unclear last week when the Legislature will meet again after it was confirmed that three Assembly members had tested positive for the potentially deadly virus. The legislative session is scheduled to end June 2.
