NY State Sen. Addabbo Trying to Usher in iCasino and iLottery

State Senator Joseph Addabbo has announced his ambitious plans to introduce an online casino and online lottery bill by the end of 2023, just in time for the upcoming session in January 2024 as well as the executive budget. This marks the Senator’s second attempt to introduce these iGaming products to the Empire State after his failed trial last year. 

Still a Lot to Be Done

Sen. Addabbo explained there is still a lot of work to do for the bill to make it into the session at the head of the next year, including “getting feedback from those in the industry,” which may include representatives of the casino industry, labor, and other parties. 

The Senator explained that they had followed the same successful steps when trying to introduce mobile sports betting to gamblers in the state. While admitting that the form and structure of the mobile sports betting bill were different from the ones proposed by him and Assemblyman Gary Pretlow, the Senator still considered it a victory that “about 65% of our vision got into the bill.”

He also praised the fact that the bill revealed itself to be the most successful mobile sports betting product in the US. 

Since Sen. Addabbo is also determined to include iLottery in the new bill, the efforts involved are expected to be even greater for obvious reasons. The Senator expects both products to generate a state revenue of about one billion dollars. 

The new bill would include a 30% tax rate, which would be about the same tax as the one included in last year’s bill which failed to reach the executive budget.

“It’s a Budgetary Item”

The Senator expressed his concerns over the “multi-billion-dollar deficit” and the fact that the state cannot raise the taxes to such an extent to cover it while bringing up the possibility of generating new revenue via iGaming and iLottery as an alternative solution. 

He also explained that other US states that have already legalized online casinos and lotteries are currently “taking our money” while mentioning the large number of New Yorkers known to engage in illegal gambling.

Sen. Addabbo believes sitting on the sidelines would be the wrong thing to do, in the context of industry analysts speaking about the state losing one billion dollars each year. 

Finally, the Senator expressed his hope that Gov. Kathy Hochul would consider at least exploring the idea of legalizing online casinos in the executive budget as a means of opening the door to “dialogue and negotiation.”

In January 2023, Sen. Addabbo spoke about the state’s plans regarding three open licenses for full casinos, emphasizing the positive impact on the future of gambling in NY.