Lawmakers Revisit Mobile Sports Betting in New York

With New York state’s budget desperate for revenues after being financially battered by the effects of COVID-19, some lawmakers are pressing, once again, for legalization of mobile sports betting in the state.

But the effort is meeting resistance on a host of fronts, including from lawmakers who question bold revenue predictions that online betting might bring. Also, Gov. Andrew Cuomo believes online wagering cannot be expanded in the state without a change to the state Constitution—a multiyear process.

Racing interests are engaged on the issue as the industry has seen different scenarios raised over recent years about the role of Thoroughbred racing in online sports betting in New York.

“A common-sense approach to legalized sports betting in New York should aim for a level playing field and provide in-state operators like NYRA with a fair opportunity to retain our loyal customers and compete for new ones,’’ Patrick McKenna, a New York Racing Association spokesman, said Thursday.

“Opening sports wagering to organizations like NYRA would benefit the state economy as a whole—particularly upstate and rural regions —by supporting further job creation and diversifying NYRA’s revenue sources to capture an emerging market,’’ McKenna said. He noted NYRA currently operates what he said is the largest online/mobile wagering platform in New York.

The chairs of the Legislature’s racing and wagering committees—Sen. Joseph Addabbo, a Queens Democrat, and Assemblyman Gary Pretlow, a Westchester Democrat—have said they believe the financial hit by the COVID-19 pandemic on the state’s budget is softening some past opposition to mobile sports betting.

The Senate in 2019 passed a non-binding resolution embracing online wagering. But the measure has stalled in the Assembly, where members have raised concerns about what they say are overly optimistic revenue estimates, an impact on the integrity of sports contests, and further proliferation of gambling. Both houses are controlled by Democrats.

The Legislature last week ended a week’s long session without taking up the issue. Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie, a Bronx Democrat, privately polled his fellow Democrats. Pretlow said Heastie came up with 66 backers, while Pretlow said his own count put the number at 86 Assembly Democrats. It takes 76 votes to pass a bill in the Assembly.

Not taken up was a Plan B, placeholder kind of measure: first passage of a constitutional amendment to legalize the wagering. Backers of that approach said it would set the stage for the issue going before voters as soon as November 2021. But the deadline for the first passage by the Legislature in 2020 is Aug. 3, and neither house has plans to return to Albany before then. Cuomo, a Democrat, believes a change in the state law is not enough to OK online sports betting; he has told lawmakers that voters statewide would have to be asked through a constitutional amendment referendum if they want such gambling.

The state permits sports wagering at brick-and-mortar casinos; non-Indian casinos have been closed since March because of the pandemic, and those in-person sports wagering outlets were not bringing in hordes of bettors.

Addabbo and Pretlow disagree with Cuomo, and they believe that the issue could come to life if lawmakers return to try to balance the state’s budget—now $14 billion in the whole—in the coming weeks or months. One unknown: Washington. President Donald Trump, House Democrats, and Senate Republicans are negotiating a new federal stimulus bill, and New York and other states are pressing for a massive $500 billion aid package.

Besides racing interests, the online sports betting issue has attracted a who’s who of lobbyists and their clients—representing interests from the NBA and MLB and PGA Tour to DraftKings, FanDuel, and an assortment of casino and other gambling sectors.

The state Senate in Massachusetts this week killed a measure, approved by the House, to legalize mobile sports betting in that border state with New York. Other border states—New Jersey and Pennsylvania—have online sports wagering.

Some of the gambling industry interests are also jockeying to try to convince the state to accelerate the process for letting three more commercial casinos open somewhere in the New York City area. The operators of the more limited video lottery terminal casino at Aqueduct Racetrack, as well as the owners of the harness track at Yonkers, have said they want to be part of any new downstate casino growth.

Various sources say at least one casino company is looking at possible sites on the west side of Manhattan; lawmakers for years, though, have resisted such locations in the densely populated borough.