New York’s Challenge to Sports Betting Law

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Wednesday, January 25th, 2017 | Written by Adam Brown

New Jersey has been battling the U.S. government for the right to offer legal sports betting within its borders for years now, but the costly legal fight has proven fruitless and looks like it will ultimately be decided by the U.S. Supreme Court. As it’s clear that the U.S. government is not willing to be flexible about its position on sports betting, one would think that other states would take a lesson from the Garden State and shelve any efforts to legalize sports betting for the foreseeable future. Nonetheless, New York has made it clear that it is going to move forward with its own efforts to make online gambling legal.

Rep. Pretlow to Champion Efforts

New York Representative J. Gary Pretlow, Chariman (photo) of the New York Assembly Racing and Wagering Committee, has long been a supporter of legalizing sports betting. In 2016, he then put those efforts aside for the most part to get a law on daily fantasy sports betting signed into law, and following its success, Pretlow has once again set his sights on legalized sports betting.

In fact, he recently said it was on the top of his agenda, with a significant motivation being that Pretlow has the Yonkers Raceway and Empire City Casino located in his district. Should sports betting legislation be fruitful, Pretlow’s constituents would therefore have a new source of potential gambling revenues, and commenting on his push for legalized sports betting, explained:

“The fact of the matter is that billions of dollars are being wagered.. A majority of those dollars are going to entities that we don’t associate ourselves with. I think that if people are doing it that it should be controlled. It should be taxed. It should be regulated. And it should be allowed.”

The Empire State had very little trouble getting a daily fantasy sports betting bill passed, and many familiar with the state of things in Albany believe that New York lawmakers are similarly eager to see sports betting legalized. That doesn’t mean that efforts will ultimately prove successful, though, because if Pretlow does manage to get the votes needed and get a law signed, the battle for the law would just get started.

Federal Court Ban

It stands to reason that the moment the ink dried on the Governor’s signature, New York would find itself challenged in court just the way its next door neighbor New Jersey was. Furthermore, the law banning sports betting has been upheld by the federal court at every turn, and while it’s possible that the New York Attorney General would present the argument in a new way, it seems unlikely that the courts would change its position on the matter.

Major Sports Leagues Opposition

In the meantime, some skeptics don’t believe Pretlow will even get that far, though. They point out that all of the major sports leagues are located in New York, but so far, only the National Basketball Association has been supportive of efforts to legalize sports betting. The other leagues, particularly the National Football League, have fought legalization tooth and nail, and have vehemently opposed efforts by New Jersey to challenge the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act (PASPA) of 1992.

It is therefore reasonable to assume that the leagues will use their influence to kill any bill before it can be voted on. Sports betting, after all, is fundamentally different than daily fantasy sports betting.

Michigan and South Carolina Join Fray

In addition to New Jersey and New York, the states of Michigan and South Carolina have now also introduced their own legislation designed to put an end to Nevada’s monopoly over the country’s sports betting industry. They, too, are faced with the daunting prospect of having to first overcome the federal law currently in place.

In Michigan, State Representative Robert Kosowski has introduced House Bill No. 4060 that would permit its casinos to accept sports wagers, while in South Carolina the state is trying to amend its constitution in order to
achieve the same outcome. According to lawmakers, the amendment would allow “the revenue realized by the State and local jurisdictions to be used for highway, road, and bridge maintenance, construction, and repair.”