Mobile Casinos Could Launch in New York

As New York becomes one of the most recent states to introduce mobile sports betting, despite some weariness with a very high tax rate and uncertainty with the language used to get around any tribal gaming rights, milestones for the start of the year have already been sent – in January, online and retail sportsbooks were able to collect a staggering $1.69 billion in wagers with the majority coming from online players, nearing $70 million per day following the launch at the start of the year. It’s no surprise given that success that other options are also being considered – and online casinos are looking to be the next target.

Neighbouring states have already done so with New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Connecticut have already launched online casino services and so New York will certainly need to push in order to keep spend within the state and avoid losing players to these other states with some figures already put out there for what could be expected from the launch – figures of $475 million in tax income and $150 million in licensing fees have ben suggested, but given how successful the online sportsbook market has become this figure could in fact be much higher – especially with the suggested tax rate set at 25% from interactive gaming.

The state is still outlining the safeguards that will need to be met, however, and this will likely be a hurdle to face a few passes before accepted – one such safeguard is limiting account creation so individuals are limited to just one active and continuously used account on the platform, which would also suggested only a limited number of platforms will be released. Expected restrictions will also remain in place to ensure that players can only access these online services within state borders, although this has been difficult for other states to enforce and having the mechanisms in place to ensure account closures can be handled quickly in the case of exclusion where necessary.

The bill that has been introduced, S8412, will seek to allow commercial casinos and tribal casinos to run online slot and table games at a $2 million fee to launch within the mobile space – and if the bill is to pass it will stay in force for up to ten years in which a renewal process will be needed – there’s also the stipulation that these online casinos can also partner up with wagering platforms too at an additional cost for those that don’t already have a license in this space.