New York Online Gambling Legal

New York may get an unexpected Christmas gift this year — online sports betting.

1. New York Legal Gambling Age- The legal gambling age in New York is slightly different from other states. New York is one of the few states that will allow gamblers some options at the age of 18. While this cannot be said for every online gambling site, the New York Legal Gambling age is one of the most tolerant.
2. Wagering on sports games is legal in New York on a rather limited basis, but it could be expanded in the coming months. Currently, four commercial casinos and five tribal casinos are permitted to.

Online Lotto Legal Age in New York The legal age in New York is 18. However, lots of states have that same minimum age. Other like Nebraska require you to be at least 19, whereas Arizona, Iowa, Louisiana require players have to be at least 21 years old.

Assemblyman Gary Pretlow told PlayNYthat he had a call Tuesday that solidified a commitment from AssemblySpeaker Carl Heastie to include mobile sports betting in a revenue bill.

The question is if New York will move on a revenue bill in the limited time remaining this calendar year. With a federal coronavirus stimulus billcoming together, odds are improving that they will.

“I think Congress will pass the stimulus bill within a week, which is setting it up for New York to do something with the revenue bill this year,” Pretlow said.

“All I know is we will do a revenue bill at some point in time and it will include mobile sports betting.”

Commitment is an act, not a word

Pretlow told PlayNY in August that he had a commitment from Heastie to include online sports betting in a revenue bill.

That marked significant progress for the effort. In April, Heastie blocked the inclusion of sports betting in the Assembly budget proposal.

Last year, an online sports betting bill passed through the Senate, but Heastie didn’t put it up for a vote in the Assembly. If he had, Pretlow believed it had the votes to pass.

Heastie and Gov. Andrew Cuomo previously stated concerns over whether a 2013 constitutional amendment that legalized New York casinos and permitted them to have sports betting extended to online.

Pretlow planned to introduce a constitutional amendment bill to start that long process before the commitment from Heastie dissuaded him.

How NY online sports betting could happen in 2020

Pretlow asserted that a revenue bill could come together quickly in New York. He confirmed there have been top-level discussions in each chamber on what to include.

New York Online Sports Betting Legal

Here are the steps forward for New York to do a revenue bill this year:

• Congress passes, and the President signs, a coronavirus stimulus package that doesn’t take care of all New York’s revenue needs.
• Cuomo proposes a revenue bill to address the shortfall.
• Both legislative chambers propose additional revenue, including from online sports betting, to fund more spending.
• Cuomo recognizes the will of the legislature, which now has a veto-proof supermajority, and doesn’t fight the inclusion.

“It can all come together very quickly,” Pretlow said. “I’m pretty sure the governor and Department of Budget already have a bill put together with what they need. Then we just have to fill in the blanks. It can happen within a week.”

Why New York could rush revenue bill before year’s end

New York doesn’t need to address the revenue shortfall until March 31, the end of the fiscal year.

However, Pretlow noted that there is possible urgency to complete the revenue bill before the end of the calendar year.

If the revenue bill includes any tax increase, that increase can go into effect Jan. 1 if passed this month. If the state waits until the new year to complete a revenue bill, the tax wouldn’t take effect until 2022. That would defeat the purpose of needing the revenue to address the shortfall now.

“We don’t know what we need yet and we don’t want to raise taxes unnecessarily,” Pretlow said.

What will NY online sports betting look like?

Pretlow said he is looking to use the same mobile sports betting language passed by the Senate last year. The only change he wants is to increase skins from one to two, creating an additional $84 million in licensing fees.

Details of the bill as passed by the Senate include:

• Authorize online sports betting through New York casinos
• Set a $12 million initial licensing fee
• Add a 12% tax on online sports betting
• Provide a 0.2% royalty fee on all wagers to the professional sports leagues on which the bets were placed
• Starting 20 months after the effective date of the law, stadiums, and arenas with a capacity of more than 15,000 seats may partner with New York casinos to have sports betting kiosks connected back to the casino via the internet

New York Online Gambling Laws

Pretlow indicated that there has been no serious consideration given to expediting casino licenses for downstate New York in the revenue bill.

“As of right now, it doesn’t look good,” Pretlow said about issuing full casino licenses in the New York City area. “If it turns out we need an extra billion dollars, it has legs. All of this is fluid.”

New York is home to a number of regulated gambling markets. The state’s lottery is popular and long-lived. Pari-mutuel wagering is practically a state pastime. Tribal gambling and class-II commercial gambling is easily-accessible for most of the state’s millions of citizens. Charitable games are regulated but allowed, and quite popular under liberal legal conditions.

But some areas of state law are not as clear. In order to understand the legality of more modern contests like daily fantasy sports or online gambling in general, we need to understand the spirit of New York’s criminal code and not just the letter of its code of laws.

New York state law defines gambling as “… the risking of something of value on a future outcome” that is beyond the control of influence of the bettor. In order to be illegal gambling, there must be an expectation of something of value “if a certain outcome occurs.” The longer definition is available in Section 225.00(2) of the state constitution.

Since the full definition includes a requirement that a person be wagering on a “contest of chance,” it’s nice that the phrase contest of chance is defined further down in the law. A game is a contest of chance if “… the outcome depends in a material degree upon an element of chance, notwithstanding that skill of the contestants may also be a factor therein.”

We added some emphasis there to showcase that basically any game that involves even the slightest chance element is considered illegal gambling. In other words, there is no consideration for skill involved in a game. Unless New York legislators legalize a gambling game, it is illegal.

As for the state’s legal gaming options, the most popular is the New York Lottery. More New Yorkers buy lottery tickets than citizens of any state, with greater than 92% participation, according to figures released by the state each summer. New York’s lottery is the second-oldest in the country, active since the late 1960s.

The second most-popular legal gamble for New Yorkers is the state’s twenty tribal facilities. Some of these are tiny racinos, with a few slot and video poker games alongside a simulcast betting window. Still others are massive Vegas-style resorts with giant gaming floors, live dealer tables, and thousands of slot and video poker titles.

Charitable gambling laws in the state are such that operators of charitable games are allowed to offer raffles, bingo, and select casino-style games that benefit a rotating schedule of non-profit groups. This has led to a local industry specializing in the operation of charity events in static locations. Charitable laws are complex, and if you want to operate one legally you’ll need a specific permit from the city.

Social gambling is not allowed in New York, by law. A single line was added to existing gaming laws in the 1990s that explicitly outlawed the practice of hosting private games of chance and skill in a home or business, even with a legitimate relationship between all players or in cases where a game without house odds is played and the host isn’t compensated at all. New York has some of the toughest anti-private gambling laws in the country.