The New York State Register has brought online sports betting that much closer to launch in the Empire State, as it released the rules and regulations that will govern the activity.
Posted a day before Thanksgiving — found in Vol. XLIII, issue 47 of the Register, as published by the Department of State’s Division of Administrative Rules — the verbiage may be dry, but the upshot is important: Without these guidelines published, no one in New York would ever be able to legally place a bet online.
With the notice in the Register, the New York State Gaming Commission can now “prescribe the rules for mobile sports wagering through servers located at casinos and improve sports wagering regulation at casinos,” as it is written in the document.
The TL;DR version? New Yorkers are one giant step closer to being able to bet online now that this administrative hurdle has been cleared.
And while there were no real surprises in the document, there were several comments and requests received by the gaming commission, and they were answered within the Register.
Notably, DraftKings had some things to get off its chest.
DraftKings, the floor is yours
First off, the company requested that employees of a mobile sports wagering licensee be able to place bets on competitors’ platforms. The commission shot down that request, noting it would compromise “the integrity of sports wagering if employees of one licensee used their knowledge of wagering data to gain wagering advantages, to the perceived disadvantage of bettors in the public who lack access to such information.”
Additionally, DraftKings — which is one of the nine operators (the others are FanDuel, BetMGM, Bally’s, PointsBet, Caesars, WynnBET, Resorts World, and Rush Street Interactive (which operates BetRivers and PlaySugarHouse) granted approval to operate in New York — asked that the requirement of laboratory testing for sports betting software be limited to “critical” software. Again, the commission disagreed, writing all software could potentially be labeled as “critical.”
Not done yet, DraftKings asked that the requirement to have a link for customer complaints be taken off the main page of the app or website and be placed on the customer’s account page. Again, the commission disagreed, noting “the requirement for the complaint link to be displayed prominently on the skin’s main page ensures that the patron complaint process is easy to locate.”
DraftKings also asked to be able to pay its taxes monthly instead of weekly. And while there has yet to ever be an “LOL” in the New York State Register, this request had to have come close. (It was denied.)
NYRA and Penn National also chime in
The New York Racing Association (NYRA) piped in, and while the folks there didn’t ask for a specific change to the legislation as written, they did express interest in “offering its advance deposit wagering (ADW) platform in conjunction with mobile sports wagering licensees, with customers sharing an electronic wallet from which funds could be drawn to place wagers on either the ADW or the mobile sports wagering platform, and to which payouts could be deposited from winnings from either platform.”
In response, the commission noted it was open to the idea, as long as both “Article X and Article 13 of the Racing, Pari-Mutuel Wagering and Breeding Law and associated regulations” were satisfied.
Also, Penn National requested that promotions — which need to be approved by the commission — be filed as little as 48 hours beforehand, instead of the 15 days as prescribed by the law. The commission disagreed, stating, “as preapproval of promotions enhances regulatory control and consumer protection, the suggested time-limit for submission would be too short to allow for timely regulatory review.”
The next step on the long road to legalization? The sportsbooks need to meet technological requirements in order to go live, which is potentially on track to happen in time to bet on the Super Bowl.
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