New York After Gambling Legislation was approved

New York is raking in the dough after legalizing online gambling, to the tune of about a billion dollars. Certainly other states with legal gambling are seeing high profits, but NY is in a whole different league. By bringing gambling to more people than ever thanks to the convenience of app-based sportsbooks, the lawmakers of NY have put in place a business that will see continued growth for the foreseeable future. New York is a new place, at least in terms of industry. Here’s how the Empire state has been transformed after its latest gambling legislation was approved.

How NY Got Legal Gambling

When the US Supreme Court repealed an old federal gambling act in 2018, it created an opportunity for NY. The Court got rid of PAPSA, a prohibition on sports betting outside of Las Vegas. With PAPSA gone, states became free to pass their own gambling laws. For several, this meant online casinos and sports betting were allowed. In the case of New York, the Gaming Commission only approved sports betting in a 2019 decision. Online and in-casino sports betting is legal, and joins online poker, lottery, and horse racing as the legal forms of gambling in NY. Online casinos are not legal in NY. 

In 2021, NY lawmakers legalized sportsbook apps and websites run by several prominent companies. The betting apps that were given the first legal licenses were FanDuel, DraftKings, Bally Bet, BetMGM, Caesars, WynnBET, Empire Resorts, PointsBet and BetRivers. These apps went live in mid-January 2022. You can now find New York sportsbook promo codes to take advantage of these platform’s welcome bonuses. BetMGM later announced an exclusive deal with Madison Square Garden to put betting kiosks in the stadium, while Caesars made an exclusive deal with the Buffalo Bills for a sports lounge. 

Why New York Doesn’t Have Online Casinos

The legal process to get online betting legalized did have some hurdles. One of the bigger ones was opposition from certain lawmakers. Perhaps they didn’t like casinos from a moral standpoint, or perhaps they just didn’t trust the security of online business. Either way, they didn’t budge, and now online sports betting is allowed in NY but online casinos aren’t. Oddly enough, NY does have actual casino buildings where all of the usual games plus sports betting are now legal. So gambling is widely allowed in the state, but online casinos are for some reason too much. Sports betting was only allowed after much debate, and had to be pushed through onto the 2022 budget to happen in time for Super Bowl 2022. 

Nothing But Profit

Despite the lack of online casinos, NY has brought in over a billion from its sports betting revenue alone. Much of that will go to the gambling corporations, but the state will see a few million in taxes. The hope is that this will lead to more spending on public projects and better-paying jobs being created for this rich new industry. 

NY after online sports betting was approved is a richer place. Casinos are typically considered a luxury vacation spot, but putting gambling online allows people to partake more frequently and with lower stakes. This in turn creates a vast new user base of casual bettors. NY is prime for this dynamic due to NYC.  The millions of people living in the city don’t have a casino close by–they can only take a weekend trip to Atlantic City by bus if they want to gamble. Or at least that’s how it was before online sports betting laws were passed. Now fans of the Yankees and Giants can bet whenever they want, and they aren’t shy about doing so. Revenue numbers show that New Yorkers are enjoying the new betting scene and will keep playing for years to come.