Online Poker and Sports Betting Included in New York Budget

Online Poker and Sports Betting Included in New York Budget March 15, 2018 March 15, 2018 Carolyn J Dawson https://www.poker-online.com/author/carolyn
Posted on  Mar 15, 2018 | Updated on  Mar 15, 2018 by Carolyn J Dawson

The New York Senate has recently released details of the latest proposed budget, which includes a section for legalising online poker and sports betting. Of course, the items that the budget incorporates don’t necessarily mean that they will become law in the state. However, here are a few facts about the provisions relating to the budget…

It marks the third successive year that online poker has appeared in such a Senate document and it’s also the first time that sports betting has been added to such. However, poker is not something that has ever appeared in a proposed Assembly version of New York’s state budget, and it’s not in the 2018 version either. Further to this, poker is not in budget of Governor Andrew Cuomo.

Basically, the budgets work as a sort of “wish list” relating to both chambers as well as the executive branch. None of these ever finish up by becoming complete laws in the state in their entirety. As spoken of, online poker was never included in 2016 or 2017. This means that 2018 may also see it not make the cut.

Looking back at the year of 2017, the online poker section of the proposed budget for 2018 is exactly the same as the one that passed the Senate that year. As far as sports betting goes, this is the same as the one that got past a committee vote on Tuesday this week.

Can Poker Succeed in New York in 2018?

The question that remains on most peoples’ minds is if things will go any differently for online poker this year. It’s been on the radar of New York for multiple years.

Unfortunately, the odds are quite heavily stacked against online poker, it would seem. In the previous two years, the Senate has passed online poker, at least as standalone sections of legislation. However, on both occasions, it didn’t manage to become law within New York.

The issue in the state appears to be with the Assembly. There hasn’t been any vote by this regarding online poker in past years. Republican, Gary Pretlow has reportedly worked on online poker legislation as the chairman of the chamber’s gaming committee. However, for some reason, he has never taken the opportunity to advance such a bill to the full floor vote.

Additionally, sports betting might not find itself included in the final budget due to the fact that there is currently no legislation in the Assembly. There is a deadline in place for a final budget though, which is set as April 1. Therefore, information will become clear in regard to what path any sort of gaming expansion may have within New York.

That being said, the New York government isn’t specifically flush with cash. Therefore, generating enough money for both online poker and sports betting could be quite the difficulty for the state. Whether or not online poker has more of a chance in 2018 than it did in the past remains to be uncovered.

Carolyn J Dawson is a professional freelance poker writer. She specialises writing content about poker/ bingo / blackjack/ etc. as well as breaking poker news. Carolyn has been freelancing for us over a number of years and writes high quality articles. Visit her google + page here