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Gov. Andrew Cuomo sounded doubtful that sports betting would come to fruition in New York State this year, music to the ears of offshore sportsbooks with most sites accessible to New York residents.
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Speaking to Alan Chartock on WAMC Northeast Public Radio, Cuomo confessed he’s “not a fan” of online gambling and appeared pessimistic about its potential impact in New York.
“Sports betting, first of all, does not make you that much money,” Cuomo told Chartock. “New Jersey has sports betting, it’s on TV all the time. You can’t turn on the darn TV without seeing it. They raised something like $13 million dollars -- $13 million dollars is a rounding error in our state. So I don’t even think the economic benefit is there.”
He believes a constitutional amendment is required in order to allow mobile sports betting, a process that would take at least two years to approve.
In the short term, a decision on sports betting needs to be made by April 1. That's the deadline for the state budget. So far, lawmakers do not have a bill.
Should sports betting ever come to fruition, early indications are that the Empire State will follow a similar model to its neighbor New Jersey as it pertains to college sports: No betting on NY schools. That's bad news for the masses looking to wager on their beloved Syracuse Orange.
When home state college teams were first excluded from NJ's betting options, few thought anything of it as the state is hardly a bastion of college sports the likes of an Alabama in Football or a North Carolina, Indiana or Kansas in College Basketball.
But now Seton Hall enters the Tournament strong and Fairleigh Dickinson earned a number 16 seed.
"It's crazy how many people from the Garden State want to bet on the Seton Hall game against Wofford and the amount of searches for where they could bet late season games," noted Don Shapiro of Gambling911.com.
Like with all states that have so far legalized sports betting, gamblers must be 21 years or older. Offshore books allow those 18 and up to bet.
- Ean Lamb, Gambling911.com
