New York Getting Pressure to Legalize Online Gambling Access

At this point, there's no reason to deny there's a rapidly growing interest among US adult residents to bet on sports and play online casino games of chance for real cash. For any state that's digging in and dragging its collective feet regarding the passing of the required gambling legislation to permit such activities is having to face certain economic realities. They are missing out on the opportunity to collect much needed tax revenues that are going to the states that already have the proper legislation in place. This also applies to states that have passed the proper legislation but have not yet opened the doors for sports and online gamblers.

Currently, eighteen states have already passed sports gambling legislation with another 10 states already having online gambling (sports and casino) legislation on the books. Of the states that have legalized sports gambling, twelve of them are already raking in sports betting tax revenues from sports betting activities. There's also 6 states that allow its residents to bet on sports and casino games over the internet or with a mobile app.

The biggest problem facing slow acting states like New York is the amount of potential tax revenues out there for the taking is running into hundreds of millions a year.

According to a report recently released by the market research firm Eilers & Krejcik, the state of New York is incurring opportunity costs of between $203 million and $286 million a year. They are incurring these costs by not passing the same kind of online gambling legislation that's already been passed by neighboring states like New Jersey and Pennsylvania.

The report was commissioned by DraftKings and FanDuel, two of the nation's leading sports betting operators. The two groups commissioned the report to gather ammunition to lay at the feet of New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, who has been under pressure by the state's residents to pass the needed gambling legislation.

Cuomo's apathy regarding the online gambling issue became very apparent with this recent comment made to the press: This is not the time to come up with creative although irresponsible revenue sources to solve a problem which doesn’t really exist.”

Online gambling is something residents want. State Sen. Joseph Addabbo, the most staunch proponent of sports gambling in the state, is on board with pushing Cuomo to make a decision now. If something doesn't get done by April 1st, New York residents likely won't be able to wager online until perhaps 2021.