New York lawmakers seem enthusiastic about changing the state’s online sports betting laws. Wednesday, seven bills were filed, each of which on its own would significantly change the face of New York sports betting, and taken as a whole would dramatically change what is available to bettors and how operators treat them.
The bill that would impose the most change is AO 9636, which would eliminate everything from team and player proposition bets to over/under bets. The bill, sponsored by Assemblywoman Carrie Woerner, would limit wagering to “final outcome, score, or winner of a sporting event or contest.”
The bill was assigned to the House Racing and Wagering Committee, but no hearing date has been set.
New York law currently allows bettors to bet on a wide variety of markets for a single game, including traditional wagers like team or individual totals (over/under), team statistics, and parlays. The current law defines sports wagering as betting on “events or any portion thereof, or on the individual performance statistics of athletes participating in a sporting event, or combination of sporting events,” and this proposal would strike that section. It would also explicitly ban in-game wagering, in-play bets, and proposition bets.
Woerner also proposes to fine operators who do offer illegal bets up to $100,000 per violation. Additional penalties could include suspension or revocation of a betting license.
Other proposals: Default limits, no limiting
A pair of bills authored by Assemblyman Alex Bores were amended and also assigned to the House Racing and Gaming Committee, though neither has a hearing date yet. A0 4280 would require sports betting operators to implement “default betting limits” on all accounts. The bills were first introduced in December.
The bill does not define what those limits would be, rather it leaves that decision to the New York State Gaming Commission (NYSGC) should the proposal become law. New and existing customers would automatically be opted into the default limit, but would also be notified that they can opt out.
Another bill, A0 9125, addresses another kind of limit. This one would prevent operators from limiting bettors “because the bettor obtains financial benefit or due to the bettor’s waging activity.” While the bill would generally ban operators from limiting bettors, it does allow for limiting if suspicious activity is noted or if the operator believes the bettor has a gambling disorder. Operators would be required to alert limited bettors within 24 hours of taking action, as well as explain why and connect the bettor with the state’s gambling addiction webpage.
New York isn’t only state to consider whether or not operators should be allowed to limit bettors and, if limiting is implemented, what it would look like. But so far, no U.S. regulator has moved forward with a plan. The Wyoming Gaming Commission in May discussed the idea but decided not to put any guidelines around limiting. The Massachusetts Gaming Commission in December voted to implement a new rule requiring operators to inform bettors if they are being limited and why, but does not stop the practice. In both states, regulators found that the percentage of bettors being limited is tiny.
Even more: KYC, VIPs, PMs
A handful of other bills touching on everything from know-your-customer (KYC) guidelines to creating a minimum age for VIP program members to banning some insider trading on prediction markets were introduced this week. All of the bills were referred to the House Racing and Gaming Committee. Here’s a look:
- A0 9584 by Woerner dropped Wednesday and explicitly outlines eight pieces of information required during the KYC process as well as requiring multi-factor authentication. The bill would clearly ban “account sharing or proxy betting” and outlines fines.
- A0 7903, sponsored by Assemblyman Charles Lavine, was unanimously reported out of the Racing and Gaming Committee Tuesday. The bill defines what it means to harass an athlete and would allow the NYSGC to designate a person meeting the definition as a banned sports bettor.
- A0 9579, sponsored by Woerner and filed Wednesday, would make the minimum age for a person to participate in a VIP program 25, and would require operators to do affordability checks on potential VIPs. Potential participants would have to provide proof of income or “financial capacity sufficient to support wagering levels.”
- A0 9580, also sponsored by Woerner and filed Wednesday, would require operators to submit anonymized data to the state to be used to study the affect of legal sports betting on gambling addiction.
- A0 9635, filed Wednesday by Assemblyman Phillip Steck, would make it illegal for any “officer or employee of a state agency, member of the legislature or legislative employee” to use insider information to trade on a prediction market. The bill specifically lists Auger, DraftKings, FanDuel, Iowa Electronic Market, Kalshi, Polymarket, PredictIt, and Robinhood, but does not limit the list to that group.
