Online gambling could be the next big legalization fight in Albany

Casino companies have the potential for a big payday if they’re successful in their lobbying efforts.

Online gambling can make a much more profitable casino than sports betting. BET_NOIRE/Getty Images

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Jack Carroll

| February 20, 2024

Jack Carroll February 20, 2024

For more than two years, anyone who is 21 years old or older can betrayed sports legally while relaxing in the armchair. And millions of people were doing it.

Since the state began mobile sports betting in January 2022, the panties have rushed to the betting app. New Yorkers bet on sports by nearly $ 40 billion, with advertising flooded companies like Draftkings and Fanduel, and leagues like NFL and NBA fully accepted sports betting. In the past two years, New Jersey has bet $ 22. 9 billion in New Jersey and $ 16. 1 billion in Nevada, and New York has surpassed the other two major sports betting markets. This is a major reason that New York has already been called the "capital of sports betting around the world."

But the rise of sports betting may not be the most important thing as a new form of gambling in the state. Industry officials and some New York Congress are promoting the legalization of lo w-known mobile betting, called interactive gaming. Igaming is basically an online casino with slots, blackjack, roulette, and craps, and for gambling companies, they may be more profitable than sports betting, but there are also many problems.

Until recently, it was difficult to legally gamble from a computer or mobile phone anywhere in New York. For decades, the state's official gambling was limited to states' lotteries and horse racing betting, and native American tribes, which were allowed under federal law. In 2013, New York has approved four Las Vegas style casinos in the state, and each has opened or expanded from late 2016 to early 2018, providing any table game.

In May 2018, the Supreme Supreme Court of the United States overturned the 1992 Professional Amusports Protection Act, which effectively banned sports betting nationwide except for Nevada. With this decision, each state has opened a way to legalize sports betting, and the door was immediately opened. New Jersey is the first one, and within a year, 12 states have passed some legalization law. In less than two years, more than 20 states have become legal.

However, for example, in New York, lon g-standing governor Andrew Kuomo was initially working on a mobile gambling resolution. In the end, Shizurev gave up, even if almost all states in New York legalized, and had been in the legalized sports gambling by 2021. Kuomo, nevertheless, achieved himself: the state introduced the highest tax rate he claimed, which separates many sports betting companies to give orders for work in New York. I didn't.

For example, one of the evidence that Igaming is actively developing this year is that it is actually very profitable for gambling companies and measuring profits. In comparison, Sports Betting is a relatively lo w-profit business, and it is said that the nationwide rate will be within 8 % in 2020. And not constant. For example, almost all betors predicted Kansas City Chiefs in a super cup and anticipated that there are few people who expect San Francisco 49ers, the sportsbook cannot cover the winning rate due to the losing rate. You will be more likely to lose.

However, Igaming's customer base is more than sports fans, and the proposed games are "percentage retention" (industrial terms indicating how much the casino has won with specific IRGE). 。 According to a survey conducted by Nevada Institute in Las Vegas for over 20 years, the average percentage retention has been dominated by 12, 69 % to 18, 90 % in Blackjack, Claps, Roulette and Backer. Ta. According to influential people in the industry, the value of Igaming buyers is seven times higher than the value of Sports Betting buyers.

Igaming is actually all of sports betting, a member of the Senator Joseph Adabo, who spoke at a gambling meeting held at Sarato Gas Springs in 2022 in Sarato Gas Springs. He arrested the function and said that it was distribution of I gambling expansion. < SPAN> However, for example, in New York, lon g-standing governor Andrew Kuomo was initially working on a mobile gambling. In the end, Shizurev gave up, even if almost all states in New York legalized, and had been in the legalized sports gambling by 2021. Kuomo, nevertheless, achieved himself: the state introduced the highest tax rate he claimed, which separates many sports betting companies to give orders for work in New York. I didn't.

For example, one of the evidence that Igaming is actively developing this year is that it is actually very profitable for gambling companies and measuring profits. In comparison, Sports Betting is a relatively lo w-profit business, and it is said that the nationwide rate will be within 8 % in 2020. And not constant. For example, almost all betors predicted Kansas City Chiefs in a super cup and anticipated that there are few people who expect San Francisco 49ers, the sportsbook cannot cover the winning rate due to the losing rate. You will be more likely to lose.

However, Igaming's customer base is more than sports fans, and the proposed games are "percentage retention" (industrial terms indicating how much the casino has won with specific IRGE). 。 According to a survey conducted by Nevada Institute in Las Vegas for over 20 years, the average percentage retention has been dominated by 12, 69 % to 18, 90 % in Blackjack, Claps, Roulette and Backer. Ta. According to influential people in the industry, the value of Igaming buyers is seven times higher than the value of Sports Betting buyers.

Igaming is actually all of sports betting, a member of the Senator Joseph Adabo, who spoke at a gambling meeting held at Sarato Gas Springs in 2022 in Sarato Gas Springs. He arrested the function and said that it was distribution of I gambling expansion. However, for example, in New York, lon g-standing governor Andrew Kuomo was initially working on a mobile gambling resolution. In the end, Shizurev gave up, even if almost all states in New York legalized, and had been in the legalized sports gambling by 2021. Kuomo, nevertheless, achieved himself: the state introduced the highest tax rate he claimed, which separates many sports betting companies to give orders for work in New York. I didn't.

For example, one of the evidence that Igaming is actively developing this year is that it is actually very profitable for gambling companies and measuring profits. In comparison, Sports Betting is a relatively lo w-profit business, and it is said that the nationwide rate will be within 8 % in 2020. And not constant. For example, almost all betors predicted Kansas City Chiefs in a super cup and anticipated that there are few people who expect San Francisco 49ers, the sportsbook cannot cover the winning rate due to the losing rate. You will be more likely to lose.

However, Igaming's customer base is more than sports fans, and the proposed games are "percentage retention" (industrial terms indicating how much the casino has won with specific IRGE). 。 According to a survey conducted by Nevada Institute in Las Vegas for over 20 years, the average percentage retention has been dominated by 12, 69 % to 18, 90 % in Blackjack, Claps, Roulette and Backer. Ta. According to influential people in the industry, the value of Igaming buyers is seven times higher than the value of Sports Betting buyers.

Igaming is actually all of sports betting, a member of the Senator Joseph Adabo, who spoke at a gambling meeting held in Sarato Gas Springs in 2022 in Sarato Gas Springs. He arrested the function and said that it was distribution of I gambling expansion.

This oversight is considered a necessary part of this, and therefore they still offer igaming in other states and states. New York sports betting specialist companies want to legalize this aspect of sports. Last year, at the general hearings of the Senate and State Assembly Committees on Jumping, Gambling and Betting, the heads of draft and other operators, they called on lawmakers to legalize iGaming. The hearings were then a year of work that was necessary to spend the rate only on the analysis of sports and their monetary results, but almost all members - and Addabbo - seemed interested in iGaming interviews. "It's time for New York to legalize and regulate iGaming," Jason Robbins, Managing Director of DraftKings, said in his acceptance speech. The road to legalizing iGaming in New York could be more difficult than the road to legalizing sports betting. While nearly 40 states have legalized sports betting since the US Supreme Court's decision in 2018, only seven states have legalized iGaming since the Department of Justice effectively decriminalized it in 2011. Delaware was the first to legalize iGaming, followed by New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Michigan, West Virginia, Connecticut, and Lynod Island.

In January, Addabbo proposed a bill on iGaming legalization in the Senate, and then, as last year and in 2022, he gave the bill, which he called a "conversation instigator," more quickly. The bill would allow nine sports rate operators, seven station casinos, nine hippodromes, and several other iGaming licensees to play online slots, blackjack, and other casino games, and tax them at 30, 5%. It would also legalize the online version of the New York Lottery.

In response to a question, therefore, that igaming is not enough state, Addabbo said that gambling bidness is considered one of the most important tasks. "I assume that this is a celebration of the comprehensive, widespread difficulties of addiction," he said in an interview with City & State.

At least, he believes that legal iGaming will be noticed in New York. "In the case of iGaming, the question is not when.

The main argument of Addabbo and other iGaming advocates is related to state revenues. "Every year, if we do not keep iGaming in New York, we will have about $4 billion (c) in revenues, if we reason," he said.

But his best case estimate is not conclusive: if iGaming is legalized, in addition to the $3 billion allowance that has a place annually, $1 billion for illegal rates from New York residents and gambling in neighboring states is in the first year.

Let's start with the idea that New Yorkers are the most likely to move to neighboring states to play online casinos, which doesn't reflect reality. "New Yorkers are the most likely to move to neighboring states to play online casinos," Howard Glazer, president of the gaming company Light & amp; amp; Am; Ask Me, said in response to a question at a hearing. "Since sports betting was legalized in New York, a certain number of New Yorkers have crossed the George Washington Bridge to Biga or taken the train to New Jersey to bet on sports, but the numbers are not enough to be imaginable. The idea that there are huge illegal gambling establishments in New York has yet to be proven factually. The gambling industry said that this argument was made during the lobbying for sports fees, but the assessments that the industry often uses to determine the volume of this illegal market are not reliable. The New York Times quoted Colman Strumpf, a PhD in economics at the Wake Forest Institute, as saying, "These numbers are literally insane." The assessment that $3 billion in new casinos will be installed each year is based on data from other states such as Pennsylvania and New Jersey, but this is only monitoring, and New York has already been burned by unrealistic monitoring of the relative benefits of gambling.

When New York was allowed to open four casinos in the upstate Las Vegas style, officials predicted that they would not get at least $270 million in direct tax revenue in the first year and at least $325 million in the fifth year. The monitoring data showed that the actual benefits were greater, and the state did not get more than $150 million in direct tax revenue that year because the casinos expanded at the expense of board games.

Even if the revenues were all sorted out, staff would also need to worry about the most likely idiosyncratic-task-addiction and problem gaming. In fact, Brandi Richards of the New York Council on Gaming Task, who is dedicated to advocating for the interests of people suffering from gaming addiction in the state, is often not seen. "There's a lot of talk about revenue, but the flip side of these benefits is the cost, right? These financing transactions are human costs that are expressed in the fact that someone doesn't have the ability to pay their mortgage, they don't have the ability to attract food or to abandon their accounts," she told City & State in an interview.

However, the organization will not take an official stance against any form of gambling. "We know that as gambling opportunities expand, problem gambling also increases," she says. Her organization has already followed this focus with the issue of sports betting. Since January 2022, when mobile sports betting was launched, the number of inquiries to the organization has increased by 25%. They have also noticed an increase in calls from a new demographic: young people, especially young men. A recent selection survey conducted by the Siena Institute and the St. Bonamento Institute found that 20% of northeastern residents understand someone who has a problem with online sports. The selection survey also found that 65% of all respondents actually believe that playing online sports "will eventually lead to the issuance of a compulsive player who will harm themselves and their family."

Compared to sports rates, IgAMing may create problem players due to the nature of the games they play. Online slots dominate the iGaming field in these states, such as New Jersey and Pennsylvania, and it has been confirmed that slots cause a significant lift in gambling rather than sports fees.

And now, staff has allocated just $6 million to sports fees for problem gambling resolution. According to a statement from Jim Main, executive director of the New York Council on Gambling Issues, this figure is not enough. "He said at a hearing in the state legislature last year.

Maine wants to receive $21 million to help with addictive sports betting, and would get even more if igaming is legalized. But Addabbo's bill only requests $11 million to help problem gambling.

When asked about the dilemma of igaming addiction, Addabbo basically replied that legalizing this look would really definitely help. "We'll be able to help people toward addiction as a result of being able to track their energy. If they move to Jersli or Pennsylvania now or do it illegally, you can't help them," he said. "If you regulate the work in New York, you're more likely to help New York tenants."

But this isn't so mandatory. The City & amp; ...

However, there is no collateral that Igaming will be legalized this year. When asked about the deadline for Igaming, the lobbyist in the gambling industry said, "It took three years to accept sports betting.

Adabo is convinced that this is the most convenient time for Igaming Legalization. "We hope that New York's mobile sports will be considered No. 1 in this country. We have to rely on this. The timing ofigaming is perfect in its significance. Hey, in fact, we basically demonstrate that New York residents support devices and have the aptitude and motivation to trade through actual store measurement sites. In an interview with the gaming Today.

Recently, he has updated his personal bill, covers the hotel gaming committee and the operators of the video purchase terminal, showing the interest of all stakeholders, and preparing to actually approach the compromise. He said he would be born.

The Senate majority office was silently saved, saying, "This is what we actually discuss at the meeting, while the economic process is moving." The Chairman of the Congress did not respond to the comment request.