Hochul forgoes special legislative session on online gambling

Those campaigning for the legalization of online gambling in New York hoped that Governor Kathleen C. Hochul was about to announce a legislative session regarding the online gambling state bill. 

The Governor of New York recently scrapped a lucrative car tax plan that was expected to bring in $1 billion per year in revenue. Now, with regular legislative sessions for New York closed for the year, Hochul must find an alternative means of bringing in revenue – with many hoping it would be online gambling. 

It is currently illegal for casinos to offer online gambling facilities to customers in New York. However, New Yorkers can still access various offshore sites to play casino games digitally. This includes poker, which is legal online in some states where casino games aren’t – notably, Nevada. According to readwrite.com, these poker sites provide more privacy and security than US-based sites do. Plus, New York-based gamblers can also play the likes of blackjack, poker, and other gambling games using crypto, so there are still plenty of options available.

While New Yorkers have access to offshore alternatives, the amount of revenue that New York-based casino sites could bring could benefit the state a lot, as has been repeatedly argued by Senator Joseph Addabbo. 

Finding an alternative means of funding is currently a crucial issue for the state’s lawmakers, particularly when it comes to the state’s public transport department. The New York public transit system is currently short of $16.5 billion. 

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) desperately needs funding to carry out essential maintenance work and expand the current subway line. Initially, a congestion pricing plan was introduced that would charge $15 for drivers to enter busy parts of Manhattan. The estimated $1 billion that this plan would raise per year was set to go towards the MTA. 

However, Hochul has since decided to scrap this plan due to the pressure it would put on the cost of living for New Yorkers. The city is still struggling to rebound financially from COVID-19, so the idea of implementing more taxes has since been deemed impractical. 

Since the scrapping of the congestion plan, all MTA maintenance and expansion projects have been put on hold. Hochul later said that she was “Committed to continuing those projects with alternative funding.”

Many assumed by ‘alternative funding’, she was proposing to hold a special legislative session for the SB8185A Senate Bill which concerns the authorization of online gambling and digital lottery. However, she has yet to do so and recently suggested that she’ll endeavor to make the current budget work for MTA. 

The Senate Bill that concerns gambling was introduced by Senator Addabbo in January of this year. Since 2022, Addabbo has pushed several pieces of legislation that would legalize online gambling and also often vocalized the benefits it could bring New York in tax revenue. 

Not only has he pointed out how digital gambling revenue could be invested in the MTA, but he’s also suggested it could be vital for the provision of healthcare and social services too. 

A combination of Addabbo’s advocacy and MTA’s growing need for funding ignited hope for many that the time for legalized gambling was upon us. However, this has so far proved not to be the case.