As we speak, seven states currently support real money online casinos, with Rhode Island becoming the seventh and latest state to do so earlier this year. However, with 2024 almost in the books, the anticipation of New York legalizing online casinos continues to be the main subject of attention for sports and other betting news. With so much promise for finally breaking through the log jam, this article looks at the current New York gambling laws that helped shape the argument of the Empire State finally legalizing online casinos.

The Legalization of New York Casinos: A Historical Overview

Even with a sprawling casino scene in the New York metro area, it’s hard to believe at one point, that gambling was frowned up in the Big Apple and throughout the state. Prior to the 19th century, most of New York’s gambling activity was held underground and was controlled by criminal syndicates like the Mafia and Irish Mafia.

However, horse racing helped to break the gambling ice in New York State. Come 1863, horse racing was legal in the Big Apple and throughout the state with the Saratoga Race Course, one of the oldest in the country, still accepting horse racing bets in upstate New York.

However, by the end of the 1960s, the climate toward gambling began to change with the implementation of the state lottery. Like other states, New York turned to its activated lottery system to help build revenue in 1967. New York is one of the biggest mega lottery states with a long history of producing millionaire winners. With this milestone, the public perception towards organized gambling finally began to change.

New York’s Tribal Casino Landscape: The Birth of Retail Casinos

With so much positive momentum behind New York’s lottery system and the rise of Atlantic City’s casinos, the time was finally at hand to bring land-based casinos to New York State. After the the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act was signed into law in 1988, many First Nation communities now had the legal right and opportunity to build casinos on their reservations and sovereign lands.

In 1993, the Oneida First Nation opened the first land-based casino in Verona, New York. With this raging success, it didn’t take long for other nations like Seneca to open more First Nation casinos throughout New York.

With the surge in First Nation land-based casinos, gambling fever in New York reached another level with the legalization and passing of Racinos throughout the state. Throughout the early 2000s, legal horse racing tracks expanded to accept lottery tickets and, eventually, other soft forms of gambling. 

New York Goes Commercial: The Rise of Commercial Retail Casinos

In many ways, New York’s hand was forced due to the meteoric rise of legal real money online casinos in New Jersey and Delaware. In 2012, Delaware shocked the world by becoming the first state to legalize online casinos, and in 2013, New Jersey followed suit. With New Jersey setting records with iGaming, New York finally approved of having commercial casinos throughout the state, including in the New York metro area.

In 2013, in a direct response to the legalization of New Jersey online casinos, New York residents overwhelmingly approved the passage of commercial casinos. By having brand names like Caesars Entertainment and MGM available in more populated areas like New York City and Rochester, the casino industry in New York went up a notch, and the early seeds of online casinos in The Empire State began to form.

Of course, the fierce anti-gambling advocates became more vocal at this time. Even with the runaway success of elite land-based casinos like Rivers Casino and Resorts and Resorts World in the Catskills, plenty of other prime casino projects, especially in Manhattan, have yet to get off the ground because of fierce backlash from the locals.

While advocates for New York land-based casinos ride high on the fact that the casinos are major job creators that will stimulate the economy, including in the construction industry that has been struggling in recent years, to get more casinos to be built and launched in the Big Apple. However, fierce critics cite the rise in crime, human trafficking, and gambling addiction as major reasons to not build them.

Also, the sheer cost of building land-based casinos is another hotbed for anti-gambling advocates who would rather see those public funds go towards fixing the public infrastructure and public education. To counter this argument, advocates and casino developers are sweetening the pot to fund these public essentials to get the public behind developing casinos.

New York Authorizes Sports Betting: The Push for Legal Online Casinos

To keep pace with New Jersey and Delaware who quickly legalized sports betting after the US Supreme Court struck down the PAPSA ban, New York overwhelmingly voted to legalize sports betting. By 2019, New York had granted four casinos the ability to accept in-person sports wagers. However, the caveat is that sports bettors aren’t able to bet on local college or pro teams.

When New York authorized online sports betting in 2021, state senators like Joe Addabbo crafted legislation to legalize New York online casinos. After the first bill didn’t gain traction, at the beginning of 2024, Senator Addabbo resubmitted an enhanced bill that would allow up to 20 online casino operators to operate, including on mobile apps.

Also, in these bills was a breakdown of how much of the online gambling tax revenue would go for funding public projects like education and critical infrastructure. There was even language in the bills to allow the existing land-based casinos in New York to operate online. Concerned about anti-gambling advocates, Senator Addabbo’s bills also feature responsible gambling measures to help win over the resistance.

Conclusion: A State on the Precipice of Online Gambling

It was expected in the summer of 2024 that the New York State legislation would hold a special meeting about legalizing NY online casinos to help make up the deficit in revenue from the combustion tax. The combustion tax is facing setbacks, which would tax New Yorkers on how many miles they drive. There is still hope that New York online casinos can become a reality, finally, in 2024.

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