New Yorkers Found a Nice Way to Legally Bet Online

When it comes to sports betting, more and more states are now allowing local sportsbooks to operate and offer their services to the locals. This started happening when New Jersey was able to get the Supreme Court of the United States to review the Professional and Amateur Act (PASPA) of 1992.

In May 2018, the Supreme Court has decided to strike down the said law and this meant that sports betting is now federally legal. With that, each state can decide whether they would like to legalize and regulate local sports wagering or not.

Currently, there are already 19 states that have already signed bills that concern the legalization and regulation of sports betting. Among these states is New York. 

New York had its first sportsbook in July of 2019. The regulatory jurisdiction that oversees sports betting in the state is the New York State Gaming Commission. Part of what they should do is to make sure that even if betting is already allowed locally, no online sportsbooks operators are offering their services locally because online betting is still illegal in this state.

Many New Yorkers are able to place their bets online on big international sportsbooks. Sure, this poses many risks but many locals are always sure to check the reputation of the online casinos of their choice. A Betway Review or any other reviews of offshore casinos can be very useful for these punters. 

On the other hand, New York only allows its locals to place their bets on local casinos. Some of the local casinos that can accept bets from the New Yorkers are found upstate. Some of these are the Rivers Casinos in Schenectady, Tioga Downs in Nicholas, Point Place Casino in Bridgeport, Turning Stone Resort Casino in Verona, Yellow Brick Road Casino in Chittenango, and Del Lago Resort Casino in Waterloo. 

What this means for New Yorkers is that that they have to drive up or travel to these casinos to be able to place their bets. Surely, this doesn’t really sit well with many New Yorkers. Online betting was something they were hoping for and is simply more convenient.

This is why the local betting industry in the Big Apple is still not exactly as popular as the state is hoping it to be. Many New Yorkers still place their bets on sites outside the state. Despite the fact that local sportsbooks are still not allowed to service New Yorkers, it’s not federally illegal for the US locals to place their bets on bookies that are based outside the US.

However, the majority of online punters in New York seem to have found ways to place their bets on online casinos that don’t have to be based offshore or outside the US. Its neighbor state, New Jersey, is now benefiting from the lack of online betting in the state.

According to reports, New Jersey is getting more visitors from New York, especially the weekends because of sports betting alone. These New York punters would usually flock New Jersey train stations like the Hoboken Station just to place their bets online.

New Jersey’s online casino sites and apps can only work and accept bets that are made within its borders with the help of geolocation software. Aside from train stations, punters would also go to bars and pubs in New Jersey mainly during the weekends. 

Bar owners and even the locals appreciate this as punters from other states is basically helping their economy. Last year, New Jersey made around 4 billion US dollars in sports wagers. A lot of these bets were coming from New Yorkers.

According to Flutter Entertainment, one of New Jersey’s leader in betting, around 22 percent of its mobile bettors are from New York. Interestingly, many of these bets are also made in train stations. 

Surely New York is still losing a lot of potential revenues from this and they know it. As 2020 comes in, Senator Joseph Addabbo Jr. already started to push for the legislation of online betting in New York. This is what the S 17 bill is for.

The S 17 didn’t make it to the last year’s hearing when sports betting was discussed by the senate for some reason. However, when it did reach the senate earlier this year, it got unanimous approval. With this, it is likely the online betting in NY will be up before this year ends.