New York Officially Approves Legal Online Sports Betting

The state of New York has announced it approved a budget for its fiscal year 2022 that would allow for legal online wagering in the state for the first time.

Further reporting from the Action Network and the Buffalo News indicates the plan to implement online sports betting will be some form of a limited-operator model that has been championed by New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo.

Cuomo has said he wants to run the state’s sports betting industry through the New York Lottery, which is run by the government. Under his plan, the New York state Lottery would issue requests for proposals from only a few mobile betting operators, which it could then license out to other sportsbook operators, according to PlayNY.

“We want to do sports betting the way the state runs the lottery where the state gets the revenues. Many states have done sports betting but they basically allow casinos to run their own gambling operations. That makes a lot of money for casinos but it makes minimal money for the state,” Cuomo said in January about his plan.

“And I’m not here to make casinos a lot of money. I’m here to raise funds for the state. So we have a different model for sports betting.”