YOU BETCHA
Now that Supreme Court has ruled to legalize sports gambling, what impact will decision have?
PLACE YOUR bets!
Legal betting on college and pro sports is headed to New York thanks to Monday’s decision by the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn a federal ban on sports gambling.
The decision clears the way for New York’s existing commercial casinos to offer onsite sports gambling as soon as the state’s Gaming Commission gives the OK — and state lawmakers are already mulling legislation that would allow them to offer online sports gaming platforms.
“The ruling has the potential to transform how Americans bet on sports,” said Charles Degliomini, executive vice president of the Resorts World Catskills casino. “It is our hope that New York State will be ready for New Yorkers to place legal sports bets in time for (the) baseball World Series, or much sooner.”
A spokesman for the Gaming Commission said it is reviewing the decision and its implications for the state. Gov. Cuomo, however, cast doubt on whether any action would take place this year.
“We’ll do an economic analysis and a legal analysis, but nothing is going to happen this year because there is, literally, just a number of days left in the legislative session and this would be a very, very big issue to tackle,” Cuomo said.
The Oneida Indian Nation, which operates a handful of casinos upstate, announced it is moving ahead with plans to offer sports gambling “in the near future.”
“The 1993 Nation-State Gaming Compact authorizes the Oneida Indian Nation to adopt any gaming specification that is permitted in New York, without any further approvals by the state,” the nation said in a statement.
The high court’s decision was also a touchdown for folks at the Resorts World racino at Aqueduct racetrack in Queens on Monday afternoon.
“It’s good news for gamblers,” said Glen Gokule, 65, a retired mechanic from Long Island. “I’d like to bet on the Giants, the Yankees.”
Petra Lee, 48, a hair stylist from Midtown, said a lot of people already bet on sports in New York, and she’s glad the courts are catching up.
“I have my online sports teams, the football fantasy teams,” Lee said. “I’m not good at it, but I bet anyway.”
Not everyone welcomed the prospect of sports gambling, however.
“A lot of people are going to lose their money. Poor people are going to get poorer,” said Cliffton Ramsama, 58, a hotel host from Queens. “I only come here once in a while for fun. A lot of people are trying to make money. But they lose money. They don’t need more options. Gambling is a business. I play for fun. I don’t like to lose money.”
Gambling opponents argued the court decision will only cause more problem gaming.
“Sports betting is especially dangerous for American kids,” the group Stop Predatory Gambling said in a statement. “Studies show that children in those countries with legal sports gambling are repeatedly exposed to harmful messages and advertisements about sports gambling. It normalizes gambling for kids.”
In its 7-to-2 decision Monday, the Supreme Court ruled in favor of New Jersey, which challenged a 1992 law that allowed sports betting to take place only in Nevada and a handful of other states. The ruling opens the floodgates for legalization of a $100 billion industry across the country.
“The legalization of sports gambling requires an important policy choice, but the choice is not ours to make,” Justice Samuel Alito wrote for the majority. “Congress can regulate sports gambling directly, but if it elects not to do so, each state is free to act on its own.”
New Jersey and former Gov. Chris Christie fought for legalized sports gambling as far back as 2011. Christie twice sued the government in an effort to make sports wagering legal. The Supreme Court case, Murphy vs. National Collegiate Athletic Association, challenged the government’s right to control the regulatory power of individual states.
“It really is a case about states’ rights,” Andrew Brandt, director of the Moorad Center for Sports Law at Villanova University. “I don’t see any guidelines in the opinion other than it’s up to the states.”
New Jersey is prepared to offer sports wagering at horse racing tracks and casinos as soon as the next few weeks.
New York’s existing gambling laws allow the four commercial casinos licensed by the state in 2014 to offer on-site sports betting as soon as the Gaming Commission publishes regulations to govern it. Legislation now before state lawmakers would also — if approved — allow the casinos to significantly expand how they take bets on pro and college
sports.
Under the bill introduced in March by state Sen. John Bonacic (R-Orange County), the casinos would be allowed to enter partnerships with racetracks, and OTB and video lottery parlors in New York to register gamblers for their online platforms and also operate sports gambling kiosks.
Bonacic and other supporters of sports gambling argue it is already taking place illegally in New York and that it would be better for the state to legalize and regulate the industry so as to better protect the consumer — while also garnering millions of dollars in added revenue for the state annually.
“It’s an $8 billon industry in New York State, all of it illegal now,” said Assembly Racing and Wagering Committee Chairman Gary Pretlow (D-Westchester County), who is drafting legislation similar to Bonacic’s.
Pretlow and Bonacic both said there is still enough time for the Legislature to act before its session ends in June.
“We have plenty of time,” Pretlow said.
The NCAA and major pro sports leagues have fought against legalization, clutching to the idea that sports betting is damaging to the integrity of the games. But in recent years, leagues such as the NHL and NFL have seemed to soften their stance, agreeing to put teams in Las Vegas for the first time.
“In some ways, they win by losing because of the tremendous incremental revenues that are going to come out of this,” Brandt said. “There’s all kind of stats that show people will engage in sports with betting where they won’t engage otherwise.”
At a hearing in Albany earlier this year, the NBA said it was in favor of sports wagering in New York but proposed that the league receive 1% of every bet on its games.
Major League Baseball said
Monday that the court’s decision will have “profound effects.”
“Our most important priority is protecting the integrity of our games,” the league said. “We will continue to support legislation that creates airtight coordination and partnerships between the state, the casino operators and the governing bodies in sports toward that goal.”
The NFL, in a statement, said it would call on Congress “to enact a core regulatory framework for legalized sports betting. We also will work closely with our clubs to ensure that any state efforts that move forward in the meantime protect our fans and the integrity of our game.”