New York Governor Andrew Cuomo has indicated that he is ready to move towards mobile sports betting in the state. However, many are worried that the Governor wants to stick to his original proposal of appointing a single operator to run mobile sports betting in the state, under the asupices of the New York State Gaming Commission.
Cuomo’s plan was met with such shock and disapproval, that he later rescinded on this statement, making it a possibility that more than one mobile sportsbook operator would contract to the state.
The American Gaming Association (AGA), however, is not leaving things to chance and wants to make sure that New York gets its multivendor mobile sports betting market.
“A marketplace that involves more participants is better than one that is a sole-sourced one,” American Gaming Association President and CEO Bill Miller said Thursday in an inveterview.
Miller said that the AGA continues to push for legal and regulated sports betting across the United States, including New York.
The Senior VP of strategic communications for the AGA, Casey Clark said that any legal option is preferable than the “pervasive and predatory illegal market”. He said that he was therefore encouraged that the Governor had changed his position on mobile gaming.
Casey said, however, that it was imperative that New York adopted a competitive market with more than one operator.
“Competition helps create customer-focused, innovative marketplaces that can effectively stifle the illegal market and generate much-needed tax revenue,” he said. “This is true in the neighboring states Pennsylvania and New Jersey that New Yorkers are crossing state lines to place wagers in.”
Governor Cuomo wants to make sure that New York gains as much revenue as possible from a legal mobile sports betting market, similar to the model adopted in New Hampshire where DraftKings is the exclusive provider to the state lottery.
