As of May 2025, New York stands at the forefront of the U.S. gambling industry, boasting a robust mobile sports betting market and actively pursuing the legalization of online casinos. We will take advantage of this article to delve into the current legal framework, recent developments and anticipated regulatory changes shaping the current context of the iGaming market in New York.

Current Legal Framework

Online Betting

What is currently happening with the betting industry in New York is absolutely mind-blowing. We are witnesses to how an American state manages to break records. Since the launch of mobile sports betting in January 2022, New York has rapidly ascended to become the nation’s largest market. Would you believe New York to sit on a gold mine?

To put it into context, in the previous fiscal year, New Yorkers wagered a staggering $19.64 billion only on sports betting. In the 2024-2025 fiscal year, the same state registered an increase of 21.9%, reaching yet another staggering $23.94 billion in online sports betting. Going further, $2.14 billion is the gross gaming revenue, with a statewide hold of 8.94%.

If you count that New York has a 51% tax rate on sportsbook operators, you got yourself over $1 billion in sports betting tax revenue that went into education and state programs.

Offline Betting

As you may or may not know, in-person betting has been legalized in 2013, giving brick-and-mortar sportsbook clearance to open physical locations where people could place bets on sports. However, the “New York Casino Gambling Amendment” allowed persons to only bet at upstate casinos in New York.

Unfortunately, those have only been operational since 2019. To conclude this chapter, we are looking at a market sector that is relatively recent, which says a lot about how passionate New Yorkers are when it comes to their favorite sports.

Recent Legislative and Administrative Developments

It’s been three years since mobile sports betting was legalized, and so far, only 9 online sportsbooks obtained their license to provide their services in New York. The process an operator must go through to obtain a license is rigorous, but it was designed that way specifically to keep the industry clean, easy to control and safe for users.

Obtaining a License To Operate in New York

The New York State Gaming Commission is responsible for reviewing the applicants and running background checks in order to ensure providers’ integrity. At the same time, a compulsory requirement is for sportsbooks to partner with commercial casinos that are already operating within the state’s borders.

Top five checks the Commission does to each applicant:

• Financial background and revenue
• Expertise in gambling
• The usage of state-of-the-art tech
• Security
• Supporting and promoting responsible gambling

However, the requirement that keeps small operators away from the licensing process is the initial fee of $25 million and the fact that they have to commit to a 10-year collaboration with the government.

Age Restrictions and Geolocation

Another significant criterion that we must take into consideration when looking at New York’s record-breaking revenue is the legal age and what restrictions potential players have in the state.

The legal age for betting is 21 years old, and by law, any sportsbook must make sure strict age verifications are made to each and every user. Something we do not see often on a global scale is the confirmation of the geographic position.

Using performant software and a combination of Wi-Fi, IP address and GPS localization, sportsbooks can confirm if a user is indeed accessing one of the nine mobile betting platforms from within New York.

Another localization limitation will restrict access to placing bets if users are physically present at sports events, stadiums or colleges. At the same time, betting on in-state college teams is prohibited.

The Future – Legalization of Online Casinos

If we were to look at how the iGaming industry is going to evolve in the following years, New Yorkers’ appetite for wagers speaks for itself. Major platforms like DraftKings, BetMGM or FanDuel have the moral duty to invest their profits, innovate and come up with new features and betting options if they want to satisfy their customers.

New York is already making big steps in the direction of legalizing online casinos, and we base our assumption solely on the revenue this state manages to generate only three years after the legalization of mobile sports betting.

Naturally, the next big step would be for online casinos to join the party. Other than that, New York is still looking forward into using that tax money to expand the betting market without affecting the system’s integrity but improving consumer protection measures at the same time. New York has the audience, resources and context to properly become a staple in the iGaming industry, and we should all look forward to the NYGC decisions in the future.

A True Example

Adopting any type of online betting happened with a huge delay for New Yorkers. However, the New York State Gaming Commission is doing a great job at keeping everything under control. We believe New York is a good example of how a State or nation should approach gambling and we are curious to see what innovations look like when coming from them.

What do you think is the next big step for the New York iGaming sector?