New York

At a Glance

Tax on Revenue

51%

Active Sportsbooks

8 Minimum Age

21 Mobile Launch

2022

How New York Regulates Sports Betting

New York's path to legal sports betting happened in two stages. A 2013 constitutional amendment authorized commercial casinos upstate and included sports wagering, but federal law blocked it until the Supreme Court struck down PASPA in 2018. Retail sportsbooks opened at the upstate casinos in July 2019. Mobile betting — where nearly all wagering actually happens — was authorized separately through the April 2021 state budget and launched on January 8, 2022, just before the NFL playoffs.

What makes New York's model distinctive is how tightly the state controls the market. Rather than letting any qualified company apply for a license, New York ran a one-time competitive bidding process and selected a fixed slate of nine operators across two platform providers. No new company can enter unless it buys an existing license — which is exactly how the market has changed since launch: Fanatics took over PointsBet's license in 2024, Penn Entertainment bought WynnBet's license to launch ESPN Bet (rebranded to theScore Bet in December 2025), and Resorts World Bet shut down in 2025, leaving eight active apps.

The Gaming Commission acts as a gatekeeper over nearly everything: which companies operate, which sports and bet types appear on the approved wagering menu, and how operators are allowed to advertise. Operators must use official league data to settle certain bets, and every wager must be placed by someone physically inside New York, verified by geolocation technology.

2013 Constitutional Amendment

2019 Retail opens upstate

2022 Nine apps go live Jan 8

2021 Mobile authorized in the budget

What's Allowed

Mobile betting statewide for anyone 21 or older who is physically located in New York when placing the bet (you can sign up and deposit from anywhere, but wagers require in-state geolocation)
Retail betting at the four upstate commercial casinos and at tribal casinos
Betting on professional sports — all major U.S. leagues plus international sports
Betting on out-of-state college teams and games held outside New York
Proposition bets, but only from the Commission's approved menu — the state decides which props operators may offer
Daily fantasy sports, which is legal and regulated — though New York has cracked down on fantasy products that resemble sportsbook betting. PrizePicks paid a settlement of nearly $15 million and relaunched in the state using a peer-to-peer format instead of its house-based pick'em model
Credit card deposits, but capped — current law limits credit card funding to $2,500 per year per bettor, and operators are banned from extending lines of credit

What's Not Allowed

Online casino games and online poker — slots, blackjack, roulette, and similar games remain illegal to offer online in New York
Betting under age 21, or placing bets while physically outside state lines
Betting on New York college teams anywhere, or on any college sporting event that takes place inside New York — even through legal apps
Sweepstakes casinos — the dual-currency "sweeps coins" model was banned by a law signed in December 2025, and major operators withdrew from the state within weeks
Offshore and unlicensed sportsbooks — these sites operate outside New York law, offer no consumer protections, and are the target of ongoing state enforcement
Sports contracts on prediction markets (contested) — New York treats sports event contracts on platforms like Kalshi as unlicensed gambling. Kalshi sued, and a federal judge declined to block the state from enforcing its gambling laws while the case continues — a notable loss for prediction markets compared to their early wins elsewhere

Where Tax Money Goes

$1.32 B

2025 Tax Revenue

51% / 10%

Online vs retail rate (change or add definitions, add explanations as a panel not tool tip)

New York taxes mobile sports betting revenue at 51 percent — the highest rate of any competitive, multi-operator market in the country, unchanged since launch. Operators cannot deduct promotional credits from taxable revenue, which makes the effective burden even heavier than the headline number. Retail bets at casinos are taxed at just 10 percent, but retail now makes up a tiny fraction of activity. The money is distributed by formula: $5 million per year funds sports programs for underserved youth, $6 million per year funds problem gambling education and treatment through the state's addiction services office, and the remainder — the overwhelming majority — goes to public education aid. The scale is enormous. New York collected more than $1.55 billion in taxes in just its first two years of mobile betting, plus $200 million in one-time licensing fees. Mobile sportsbooks generated over $2.4 billion in gross gaming revenue in 2025 alone, and the state now routinely collects more than $100 million in a single month — including $127.8 million in January 2026 and $124.5 million in April 2026. The tax is also New York's biggest policy controversy. Because operators keep less than half of what they win, they recover costs from bettors through worse odds and far fewer promotions than in lower-tax states. Supporters point to record revenue with no major operator leaving the market. Critics argue the rate concentrates the market around FanDuel and DraftKings, squeezes out smaller competitors, and may push price-sensitive bettors toward untaxed offshore sites — the core question researchers ask about whether extreme taxation undermines the goal of moving bettors into the legal market. For individual bettors, winnings are taxable income: New York withholds 8.82 percent on payouts over $5,000, large wins face 24 percent federal withholding, and starting with the 2026 tax year, federal rules cap gambling loss deductions at 90 percent of winnings.

What to watch in 2026-27

Senator Joseph Addabbo's bill (S2614) would have legalized online slots, table games, and poker at a 30.5 percent tax rate, but he abandoned the effort in late May 2026 after Governor Hochul declined to support it — the fifth straight year the push has died. Union opposition from the Hotel and Gaming Trades Council, which argues iGaming would cannibalize casino jobs, remains the biggest obstacle. The earliest realistic launch is now 2027 or later.
A bill (A10329) passed both chambers unanimously in June 2026 and awaits the governor's signature. It would require every sportsbook to send users a monthly statement itemizing deposits, total wagered, net wins and losses, promotional credits, and time spent on the platform — with lifetime totals added starting in 2027.
Assembly Bill A7962 would ban credit card deposits entirely, cap deposits at $5,000 per day and five per day, and prohibit ads using words like "bonus" or "no sweat." It has not advanced out of committee.
After a wave of betting-integrity scandals, the Gaming Commission wrote to the NFL, NBA, NHL, MLB, and MLS in February 2026 asking them to help identify risky bet types — signaling possible restrictions on certain player proposition wagers. Governor Hochul followed in March 2026 with a broader gambler-protection agenda, and the Commission is separately considering biometric identity verification for betting accounts.
Lawmakers introduced the ORACLE Act to ban sports event contracts on federally regulated prediction platforms, a Senate committee advanced related legislation in May 2026, and New York is one of the few states where courts have so far sided with the regulator over Kalshi.
In December 2025, the state awarded its three downstate casino licenses to Resorts World New York City (Aqueduct, Queens), Bally's Bronx (Ferry Point), and Metropolitan Park (the Hard Rock project backed by Mets owner Steve Cohen near Citi Field) — roughly $15 billion in planned development. Resorts World opened New York City's first live table-games floor in April 2026. These casinos matter for online policy too: they would be among the eligible license holders if iGaming ever passes.

Sources

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