New York Online Poker: 2019 News And Updates

Read on for the latest New York online poker news, along with a summary of the legislative efforts to date.

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Legal online poker in New York

Even though it was late to the party, New York remains a serious contender for online poker legalization.

Legalization could make the Empire State the fifth — following New Jersey, Nevada, Delaware and Pennsylvania — to legalize online poker. Some believe the changing landscape for gambling expansion could help push New York to the finish line in the near future.

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New York online gambling news: June 2019

• Well, we’re going to try it again. Sen. Joseph Addabbo has filed an online poker bill into the upper chamber.
• Given the complicated landscape right now, however, prospects for passage appear to be middling at best.
• What’s more, a new Wire Act opinion from the DOJ may have an additional “chilling effect” on the legislative appetite.
• MGM has received its NY gaming licenses, a key step toward closing its Empire City Casino purchase in Yonkers.

Latest NY online gambling stories

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  New York Stuck In 20th Century Without Online Gambling, Says Key Lawmaker

  By Matthew Kredell on February 7, 2019 09:20 PDT

  Sen. Joseph Addabbo Jr. tells OPR that online gambling and mobile sports betting could be possible in New York under the existing constitutional language.

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  Appetite For Legal Online Gambling Modest Amid Sports Betting Expansion

  By Eric Ramsey on February 4, 2019 12:23 PDT

  This year will be the busiest one yet for sports betting legislation, but online gambling bills remain few and far between among US states in...

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  New York Gaming Commission Approves MGM Yonkers Licenses

  By Matthew Kredell on January 29, 2019 07:44 PDT

  New York regulators approved a series of applications for MGM Resorts to take over operations of Empire City Casino and Yonkers Raceway.

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  New York Online Poker Bill Faces A Difficult Path To Passage In 2019

  By Steve Ruddock on January 7, 2019 10:27 PDT

  An online poker bill has been prefiled in the New York Senate, but a number of challenges will make legalization a tall task for 2019.

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  NY Online Poker Bill Introduced For 2019 In Senate With New Sponsor

  By Nicholaus Garcia on January 7, 2019 07:13 PDT

  The prospect of online poker lives on in New York, as a bill was once again introduced in the state Senate. Its prospects for passage...

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NY sports betting

New York is among the handful of states that partially legalized sports betting before the US Supreme Court overturned PASPA. That decision in May 2018 activated a provision in the 2013 law authorizing retail sportsbooks at the four commercial casinos upstate.

Early in 2019, regulators approved interim rules for NY sports betting, which are now subject to a 60-day public comment period. Once finalized, in-person sports betting should roll out fairly quickly. All four properties have already secured their partners:

• Del Lago + DraftKings Sportsbook
• Tioga Downs + FanDuel Sportsbook
• Resorts World Catskills + bet365
• Rivers + Rush Street Interactive

Compacts will also allow the state’s gaming tribes to open sportsbooks on their properties. So far, only the Oneida Nation has a public partnership, having teamed up with Caesars for NY sports betting.

NY online poker history

Here’s the timeline of “progress” toward NY online poker so far:

2018 in review

The dream of online poker died yet again in 2018, when the legislature failed to act on pair of active bills. A key lawmaker in the Assembly said he’d prioritize sports betting going forward.

Meanwhile, we were left to diagnose what went wrong yet again as neighboring Pennsylvania prepared to launch its own industry. A late-2018 court ruling regarding fantasy sports seems to dim the prospects in NY even further.

2017 in review

Online poker was already on some lawmakers’ radar, with bills again coming from both Sen. John Bonacic and Assemblyman J. Gary Pretlow.

Pretlow seemed more eager to push things in the Assembly, but that optimism didn’t turn into action.

2016 in review

We saw real progress made on online poker in 2016.

It started off with some forward momentum via committee hearings. Then, Bonacic managed to get his iPoker bill through the Senate with a lopsided vote of 53-5 late in the legislative session.

However, Pretlow said the issue didn’t have support in his chamber, and the bill died on the vine. In the wake of that, Pretlow cited a variety of concerns, including whether poker is a “game of skill” and the issues of security and cheating at sites.

Daily fantasy sports was legalized and regulated by the government in 2016.

2015 and earlier

In May of 2015 Bonacic reintroduced his online poker bill, S 5302, but once again the legislature didn’t act on it, and entering 2016, online poker had never even warranted a hearing.

The year before, in March of 2014, a bill seeking to legalize online poker, S 6913, was introduced by Bonacic, who would become online poker’s biggest cheerleader in New York in the years to come. Several months later, in July of 2014, Pretlow introduced a similar online poker bill in the State Assembly.

Recognizing the mood in the legislature, Bonacic called his 2014 bill a conversation starter, and stated that he never intended to make a serious push for online poker expansion in 2014.

The biggest hurdle online poker had to overcome in the New York legislature was the attitude voiced by several key politicians that online legislation needed to wait until the state completed its current gaming expansion project, four new brick-and-mortar casinos.

Three of those casinos are now up and running, with Rivers Casino taking its first bet in February 2017, and del Lago in January 2017. Tioga Downs officially expanded into a casino in December 2016.

Online poker was first broached in 2013, as a potential funding source for the state’s budget; an idea that never gained any traction.