NY Online Casinos and Sweepstakes

New York, with a population of nearly 20 million, is home to the largest sports betting market in the country. Once legislators overcome long-standing obstacles to legalizing real-money casinos, it could also quickly become the nation’s largest regulated online casino market. 

New York online casinos’ biggest supporter in the legislature has been Senator Joseph Addabbo, Jr., who continues to lobby for regulating the form of gaming to generate badly needed tax revenue and protect New Yorkers who are already participating in sweepstakes casinos. 

Several years of iGaming legislative efforts have failed in New York due to key opposition from labor unions and a lack of interest from the Governor’s office. However, that could change in the coming years if Addabbo is able to gain the support he needs to get legislation passed.

📊 Key facts and figures

Population	19.87 million
Online casino bills	SB 2614 – Sen. Joseph Addabbo, Jr. (sponsor to legalize NY online casino)
Sweepstakes bill	Two bills to ban NY sweepstake casinos:SB 5935 (sponsored by Addabbo); A6745 (sponsored by Assemblywoman Carrie Woerner)
Online poker bill	SB 2614 would also authorize peer-to-peer online poker
Allowed	Retail and online sports betting, retail casino gambling, horse racing, lottery, fantasy sports, charitable gaming
# of licenses/skins	One skin per licensee; Eligible licensees to include casinos, VLT facilities, tribal gaming entities, online sports betting providers
Licensing fees	$2 million one-time fee for licensees; $10 million licensing fee for online casino providers (skins)
Operator tax rate	30.5%

✋ Current status of New York gambling bills

The NY online sportsbook market went live in January 2022, and there are nine options for betting on sports. Several variations of iGaming bills have been proposed in New York, but none have made it to the governor’s desk due to key opposition, especially from the New York Hotel and Gaming Trades Council (HTC) and retail casinos concerned about potential cannibalization of retail casino revenue. 

Senator Addabbo introduced a new online casino bill for the 2025 legislative session in January. SB 2614 currently resides in the Senate Racing, Gaming, and Wagering Committee, awaiting discussion before it would go to a vote that could advance it from the Senate to the Assembly. 

This year’s iGaming proposal has similar opposition to those in years past, with labor unions being the main obstacle to the bill’s progress. Governor Kathy Hochul remains quiet regarding her support for regulated online casinos in New York as a result of the staunch opposition from the hotel and gaming employee union. Additionally, the administration continues to prioritize the ongoing process of awarding three downstate retail casino licenses, to the detriment of potential discussions around passing online casinos. 

According to Addabbo, bringing the different sides to the negotiating table is a required next step for the bill to get the needed support in both legislative chambers. The bill would then head to the Governor for final approval, but that step remains a distant target.

🎰 NY sweepstake casinos and social sites

Two separate bills aimed at banning sweepstakes gaming sites were introduced in New York during the 2025 legislative session. Senate Bill 5935, sponsored by Senator Addabbo, would explicitly prohibit sweepstakes sites and games that utilize the dual-currency model wherein one form of virtual currency can be redeemed for real money equivalents. 

The bill covers not only casino-style sweepstakes sites, but also those offering poker or sports betting products. It also extends penalties to associated entities facilitating or promoting unregulated sweepstakes games. Among them are financial institutions, payment processors, geolocation providers, gaming content suppliers, platform providers, and media affiliates. Addabbo’s sweeps ban bill stipulates penalties up to $100,000 for each violation, as well as revocation of gaming licenses for regulated operators. Unregulated violators would also be permanently ineligible to apply for a gaming license. 

SB 5935 advanced out of the New York Senate Racing, Gaming, and Wagering Committee in March 2025 and now awaits discussion and a vote on the Senate floor. Assemblywoman Carrie Woerner introduced a similar companion bill (A6745) in the Assembly, which is still awaiting committee review. 

🔎 What’s in NY Senate Bill 2614

The current edition of Addabbo’s NY online gambling bill is the most amenable to opposing parties as it includes several job protections and increased responsible gaming safeguards. The bill would require live dealer studio employees to reside in New York and make a labor peace agreement a prerequisite for licensure. The proposal also earmarks $25 million for a casino employee training fund, which Addabbo says is intended as a placeholder to be negotiated as a protection for land-based casino jobs. 

“I think any issue that has ever confronted us in terms of iGaming, we can overcome,” Addabbo told Comped.com. “I’m confident of that. With a little creativity in the statutory language, we can protect the brick-and-mortar retail casinos.” 

In the bill, entities eligible for an iGaming license include casino and tribal gaming operators, VLT facilities, and online sports betting operators. License holders would have to pay a one-time fee of $2 million, while the fee for iGaming operators is set at $10 million for a 10-year license. The proposed bill allows for one skin per licensee. Operators would be taxed at a rate of 30.5%, and promo spend deductions would be capped at 1.75% after the first year in operation. 

Responsible gaming safeguards in the bill include an annual limit of $2,500 on credit card deposits. The bill requires operators to offer daily, weekly, and monthly self-exclusion options, and to provide disclosures and require acknowledgment of problem gambling resources once an iGaming customer passes a lifetime deposit threshold of $2,500. Every operator would also have to submit a problem gaming plan every year to be approved by the New York State Gaming Commission. The bill also earmarks $11 million in annual funding to support responsible gambling training and education. 

This version of the bill also authorizes online lottery sales. Finally, SB 2614 includes a clause stipulating that any entity having offered unregulated online casino games in New York within three years of the bill’s effective date would be ineligible for a license. This provision is intended to expressly exclude offshore unregulated sites and sweepstakes casinos from participating in the future regulated NY iGaming market.

🔄 Steps required to pass the NY online casino bill in 2025

SB 2614 currently sits with the Senate Racing, Gaming, and Wagering Committee where it was introduced in January. The bill awaits public hearings and a committee vote. If approved in committee, the bill would move to a full Senate floor vote, requiring a majority – at least 32 of 63 – yes votes to advance to the Assembly. 

If amended, the bill will return to its original chamber as a new version, marked with a letter suffix (i.e. SB 2614-A). It would then go through a similar process of vetting and a full vote in the Assembly, where at least 76 of 150 votes are required for approval. 

If amended differently in each chamber, identical text must pass through both chambers for approval. It would then move to the Governor to sign it into law, allow automatic enactment after ten days, or veto the bill, which would require a 2/3 legislative override.

Major supporters: Senator Joseph Addabbo Jr.

To date, Senator Addabbo is the lone crusader in the fight to pass online casinos and poker in New York. To date, the HTC is the most vocal (and powerful) force opposing such legislation. One of their arguments against the efforts has been that the state needs to focus on the ongoing process of awarding three downstate casino licenses. The NYS Gaming Commission set a deadline of June 27, 2025 for those license applications, but the entire expansion process could take several more years before new retail casinos open their doors. 

Senator Addabbo maintains that NY iGaming is a matter of when, not if, and every year without iGaming in New York costs the state at least a billion dollars (in tax revenue). 

Addabbo emphasizes he’s willing to get creative with bill provisions to come up with a regulatory structure and retail casino job protections that work for the unions, iGaming operators, and those concerned about problem gaming. According to Addabbo, Governor Hochul will need to take initiative on the issue to bring the HTC to the negotiating table. 

“If the governor of this state doesn’t show leadership in saying, ‘Hey, we may not want to do iGaming, but we need to do it for the sake of revenue or helping someone with an addiction’ – she should take the initiative. It can’t be just me. I can’t be the only one who’s chair of the committee going, we need to do this and back this struggle constantly. I can’t be the only one. It has to be the governor.” 

Major opponents: Hotel and Gaming Trades Council

The Hotel and Gaming Trades Council continues to vehemently oppose the introduction of regulated online casinos and poker in New York. The union stands by its belief that regulated iGaming would reduce jobs not just for casino dealers but also for support industries like food and beverage.  

Bhav Tibrewal, political director of the HTC, told PlayUSA in 2024: 

“For every dealer job, there are several other jobs created when you have a brick-and-mortar casino. There’s an entire ecosystem of labor, services and amenities that comes with a casino, and iGaming really completely decimates that ecosystem and changes the nature of what it means to gamble in New York state.”

Tibrewal is also not convinced that the $25 million fund put in place in the proposed bill would be sufficient to prevent job loss or other negative impacts on the gaming industry union members. 

“We firmly believe that iGaming harms the best part about casino gaming in New York state, which is jobs,” said Tibrewal. “No matter how much state revenue iGaming creates, if it comes at the cost of hurting the prospects for jobs at casinos, in our minds it’s a no-brainer that it’s the wrong thing to do.”

Tibrewal and retail gaming employees need more evidence before they can discuss passing online casinos in NY. 

“We’ve yet to be presented with any meaningful evidence this would not have a negative impact on jobs. Until somebody can prove to us that current jobs and the creation of future jobs won’t be impacted, we will be firm in our stance against iGaming.”

The union has also argued against considering iGaming before the downstate casinos open in New York. 

“We’re looking forward to very high quality new casinos being developed and operated downstate for one reason, because of the number of jobs and quality jobs to be created. I think altering what the casino market looks like in the middle of that RFA process would be misguided. While we oppose iGaming, we certainly are all the more opposed to it while we’re in the middle of this process. We think the focus should be on downstate casinos.”

This competing administrative priority will likely continue to hamper Addabo’s efforts to pass an iGaming bill in the coming months and possibly years.

💰 Expected revenue impact from NY online casinos

With a tax rate of 51%, higher than any other state, legal New York sports betting set a record annual tax revenue north of $1 billion in 2025. Online casino revenue in the state would quickly dwarf that figure.  

In large markets like Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Michigan, which offer both online verticals, revenues from iGaming outperform sports betting by a ratio of at least 3-to-1. In 2024, PA online casinos and poker sites brought in $2.2 billion according to PGCB figures, good for four times more than sports betting, which drew $510.7 million in operator revenue.

With a lower tax rate for iGaming compared to sports betting in New York, conservative estimates project annual online casino tax revenue of between $1.5 billion and $3 billion for the Empire State. Addabbo points out this potential tax revenue could help plug ten-figure annual budget deficits the state is facing in the coming years.

📖 Past bills and history

All the recent legislative efforts in favor of NY online gambling have been spearheaded by Senator Addabbo, meeting the same fate of stalling out before gaining any significant momentum.