Mobile sports betting is coming to New York.
The
state’s gaming commission announced Thursday that four of the nine mobile
sports wagering operators selected in November have been approved to accept
bets as early as Saturday morning.
The announcement gave the go-ahead to Caesars Sportsbook, DraftKings, FanDuel,
and Rush Street Interactive. The New York State Gaming Commission said the
other five - Wynn Interactive, Resorts World, BallyBet, BetMGM and PointsBet -
are in the process of meeting statutory and regulatory requirements and will be
approved when those requirements are met.
Several upstate casinos began allowing in-person sports betting in 2019, but
the push to tap into the more lucrative mobile market stalled while then-New
York Gov. Andrew Cuomo questioned whether approving it would require a change
to the state’s constitution, before he ultimately signed the the bill into law
in April.
State elected officials have estimated it could bring in up to $500 million in
tax revenue annually.
Democratic state Sen. Joseph Addabbo Jr., a longtime advocate for legal sports
gambling, called the announcement Thursday “great news for New York in terms of
revenue, new funding for education, addiction programs and youth sports, as
well as new jobs.”
Since 2018, when the U.S. Supreme Court struck down a 1990s federal law against
sports gambling in a case brought by then-New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, about
half of U.S. states have implemented some form of legal sports gambling. New
York has seen neighboring New Jersey and other nearby states, most recently
Connecticut, implement sports betting laws that lured away gamblers and
revenue.
New Jersey has surpassed Nevada as the top sports betting market in the U.S.
Through the end of November, New Jersey’s nine casinos and the three horse
tracks that take sports bets have taken nearly $10 billion in wagers, including
online wagers. Industry experts have estimated as much as 25% to 30% of sports
bets in New Jersey are placed by New York residents.
Connecticut began accepting sports wagers in October, and Pennsylvania has had
legal sports betting since late 2018.