New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo may support a limited rollout of sports gambling but said he is "not a fan" of expanding that to include online wagering, according to David Lombardo of the Albany TIMES UNION. Cuomo also "downplayed the potential economic benefits that could come with mobile wagering in New York." Nearly two months ago, state regulators "approved narrow rules that would only allow sports gambling at Native American-owned casinos and the four private gaming halls upstate." Cuomo described the plan as an "attempt to 'fortify' the upstate casinos." The budget resolution approved by Senate Democrats last week would "allow the full-scale upstate casinos to offer sports gambling online." Other gambling operators would still be "excluded from participating." As adopted by the state Senate, the casinos would each pay a $15M license fee, be subject to an 8.5% tax rate and "direct a tiny fraction of their revenue to professional sports leagues as a 'royalty fee.'" The proposal also "allows bets on collegiate sports" (Albany TIMES UNION, 3/19).
LOSING ITS LUSTER: In New York, Don Cazentre wrote the "urgency to create an updated framework for sports betting -- including the possibility of online and college bets -- seems to be fading." Hopes are "dimming that state lawmakers will have a sports betting bill in place in time to be included in the upcoming state budget, which is due April 1." Cuomo said, "Sports betting, first of all, does not make you that much money. New Jersey has sports betting, it’s on TV all the time. You can’t turn on the darn TV without seeing it. They raised something like $13 million dollars -- $13 million dollars is a rounding error in our state. So I don’t even think the economic benefit is there." Cazentre noted issues in developing a new platform for sports betting in New York are "different ideas of how it should look" (NEWYORKUPSTATE.com, 3/18).
