NY State Assembly Introduces Sports Betting Kiosk Bill

• NY Assemblyman Introduced a Bill That Would Allow Mobile Sports Betting Kiosks
• Possible Betting Kiosk Locations Would Be Run Through Upstate Casino Servers
• Mobile Sports Betting Kiosks Would Wait At Least a Year for State Approval

NY Assemblyman Introduced a Bill That Would Allow Mobile Sports Betting Kiosks

It’s one thing to make mobile sports betting legal in the state of New York, which its lawmakers did back in April 2021, but to make sportsbooks more accessible to qualified bettors there is the key to increasing the overall handle and a new bill just introduced is meant to do just that.

Earlier this week, New York Assemblyman J. Gary Pretlow of Mt. Vernon introduced a bill that, if passed, would allow mobile sports betting kiosks to be placed at any pro sports venues, horse tracks, and OTBs that have agreements with mobile sportsbook operators licensed in New York.

Another option this new legislation would bring to New York mobile gambling is fixed-odds horse betting, all in an effort to expand a mobile sports betting market that is not expected to launch until early 2022, most likely in time for the NFL’s Super Bowl LVI scheduled for February 13.

Senator Joe Addabbo of Queens, who introduced an identical bill in Albany last month, has said that these bills are meant to increase this new market’s ease of use for bettors, telling the press:

One thing we have a vision of is accessibility of mobile sports betting for New Yorker. So, horse racing, stadiums, arenas, kiosks, OTBs, throughout the state … right now that’s not the case and will not be the case but through horse racing and their bets.

The range of potential kiosk locations should please Empire State gamblers.

Possible Betting Kiosk Locations Would Be Run Through Upstate Casino Servers

Some of the major facilities in the state of New York that would most likely see sports betting kiosks as a result of this new legislation, if passed, are:

• Madison Square Garden
• Yankee Stadium
• The Mets’ Citi Field
• Buffalo Bills’ Highmark Stadium
• Saratoga Race Track
• Belmont Race Track
• Aqueduct Race Track

Each kiosk wager would be processed through the servers located at four upstate commercial casinos – the same servers that are already set to handle all mobile sports wagers placed statewide.

This potential increase in accessibility will only serve to increase the overall handle in New York, which means more tax revenue, with current estimates projecting the state would eventually generate about $482 million in annual tax revenue from a $1 billion sports wagering market.

But, unfortunately, all this will take time to put in place.

Mobile Sports Betting Kiosks Would Wait At Least a Year for State Approval

Once this proposed legislation passes into law, there would still be a delay in when these sports betting kiosks could be up and running.

Sportsbooks would have to wait a full year for the state to approve agreements with horse tracks, which means kiosk betting at the tracks would not happen until late 2022 at the earliest.

That is sooner than it would happen for the mobile sports betting kiosks at New York pro sports arenas and stadiums, since the legislation has them waiting 20 months for state approval.

Soon New York will join more than half the other states in the US who are currently enjoying their legal sports betting market, both mobile and in-person, a new source of revenue that in time should benefit all residents.