No progress for New York mobile sports betting regulation

Despite the intentions of the government to move forward with a framework to regulate mobile sports betting, it seems unlikely to be ready in 2021.

US.- New York Governor Andrew Cuomo‘s budget is due and there are no signs of any progress on sports betting regulation despite the governor having banked on revenue from the activity.

According to a report from The Action Network, regulation wil not be ready for this year.

In January, Governor Cuomo said: “That (sports betting) makes a lot of money for casinos, but it makes minimal money for the state. And I’m not here to make casinos a lot of money. I’m here to raise funds for the state, so we have a different model for sports betting.”

But since then, there haven’t been any major developments.

Senator Joseph Addabbo, who is pushing for gambling expansion in the legislature, said: “The bottom line is we need to negotiate with the governor.

“We need to see what would be in the budget and the hours are diminishing because, in order to have something to see on Wednesday, they have to go to print tomorrow. You can’t buy a new car without seeing the color or the make.”

The mobile sports betting framework

Back in January, the New York State Assembly proposed a licensing structure and tax regime for mobile sports betting in the state. It also made projections on the potential financial impact for the state.

The proposal sets the licensing fee at $12m for each platform and taxation at 12 per cent of operators’ gross gaming revenue.

The assembly predicts that the fiscal impact of mobile sports betting on the state of New York will be $180m in 2022, $86m in 2023, $112m in 2024 and $118m in 2025.

New York Governor Cuomo has publicly advocated legal sports betting after long pushing against it. His switch in opinion is believed to be at least partly due to the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on state coffers.