New Yorkers are seeing a glimmer of hope for online casinos becoming legal in the state in 2025. That’s because perhaps the smoothest path to bills becoming law, the governor’s budget, may need to include an additional funding source for the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA).
In January, Gov. Kathleen C. Hochul is scheduled to publish her executive budget. It tends to be a combination of her proposals and budget requests from the agencies that reported their needs by her Oct. 17 deadline. Public transportation is expected to have a large gap between its funding needs vs. income sources.
Meanwhile, the Fiscal Year 2026 proposals can also include bills from legislators, like the iGaming and iLottery bill that state Sen. Joseph P. Addabbo Jr. has long advocated.
Bonus asked Addabbo, D-Woodhaven, if he thinks recent comments about that budget show an opportunity for New York online casinos to enter Hochul’s agenda.
Addabbo told Bonus on Oct. 17:
I always look for a window for iGaming.
He has already promised to introduce a 2025 bill to legalize online casinos, poker rooms, and an online lottery.
A refrain in Addabbo’s interviews with Bonus is he wants New York’s 20 million residents to have safer online gambling options than the current illegal offshore sites he knows they’re using.
Regulation would also benefit state coffers by bringing in “billions” of tax dollars, he has said.
That revenue expectation is likely accurate. The legislation Addabbo proposed in 2024 called for a 30.5% tax rate on online casinos and poker rooms.
In states with iGaming and sports betting, online casinos bring in 70% of the revenue, Bonus research finds.
The other 30% comes from taxing sportsbooks.
In New York, those tax receipts are already substantial. The Empire State’s nine sportsbooks launched on Jan. 8, 2022. Since then, the 51% tax rate on operators has yielded $2,213,268,918, according to Legal Sports Report.
Bonus and LSR are Catena Media publications.
What Hope for New York iGaming Looks Like
At the last minute, Hochul removed $1 billion in MTA funding from the Fiscal Year 2025 budget. She announced on June 5 that she would not enact congestion pricing, which would have tolled commuters when their vehicles entered Manhattan below 60th Street.
She didn’t replace the funding.
However, it appears the 2026 executive budget will be different.
New York Budget Director Blake G. Washington said so on Oct. 4.
That day, Jack Arpey wrote about Washington’s take on Hochul’s budget for Spectrum News 1:
Will it include a revenue replacement for congestion pricing?
‘I think the next possible opportunity to deal with it will be in the budget. So, yes,’ Washington said.
Plus, Hochul doesn’t want to “increase personal income taxes,” Washington said.
Washington was answering reporters’ questions on Oct. 4 because, on Oct. 1, he sent a letter to leaders of the New York agencies telling them to keep their budget requests the same as they were in Fiscal Year 2025. That enacted budget was $237 billion.
So, how will the $2.3 billion shortfall be fixed?
Enter the opportunity for New York iGaming.
However, Hochul may still feel the need to address concerns from the union representing New York’s retail casino workers. In 2024, Bhav Tibrewal — political director at the Hotel and Gaming Trades Council (HTC) — told Bonus his union unequivocally opposed legalizing online casinos and poker rooms.
Also, the upcoming income stream for which Tibrewal’s union did advocate — fees and revenue taxation on three downstate retail casino licenses — won’t begin entering New York coffers until at least June 27, 2025. That’s when each application for the licenses will cost $1 million to file.
The larger fees for the full casino licenses, which Addabbo expects will approach $3 billion, won’t come until at least Dec. 31, 2025. That’s when the New York State Gaming Commission (NYSGC) is expected to pick winning bidders.
That’s why New York iGaming may have a chance to enter Hochul’s budget in January.
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