Almost nine years after New York voters signaled their support for legal sports betting, the first mobile sports wagers were finally placed in the Empire State in January of 2022. And while New Jersey beat its bigger neighbor to market by nearly four years, New York quickly asserted itself as the top state for mobile sports betting in America.
Rare is the month when New York's nine online sportsbooks fail to combine for $1 billion in collective sports wagering handle, with that figure occasionally eclipsing $2 billion. With a rich history of sports fandom and a multitude of professional teams and leagues to bet on, New York has achieved its top-dog status despite a prohibition on wagering on in-state college teams.
New York taxes its commercial sports betting operators at 51% of their gross gaming revenue. Leading sportsbook executives will occasionally complain about this rate, which is the highest in the U.S., but it hasn't dissuaded them from setting up shop in New York and has fattened the state's public education coffers in the process.
Retail sports betting in New York launched at several upstate casinos in 2019. Now, with three downstate casinos licenses about to be doled out, all eyes are on where these gaming facilities will wind up and who will run them