Content on this page may include affiliate links. If you click and sign up/place a wager, we may receive compensation at no cost to you.
Senator Joseph Addabbo Jr. officially reintroduces bill to legalize online casinos in New York
As expected, Sen. Joseph Addabbo Jr. is taking another run at legalizing NY online casinos with hopes that the fourth time is the charm.
For the fourth straight year, Sen. Joseph Addabbo Jr. is looking to pass legislation to legalize online casinos in New York. While the latest proposal is a mirror image of the bill he rolled out in 2025, optimism still remains that the Empire State would authorize state-regulated iGaming now that officials completed the downstate casino licensing process. That said, there's still a steep, uphill road ahead for New York online casinos with one major hurdle standing in the way of passage.
Details of proposed NY online casino bill
Addabbo reintroduced S2614, a counterpart to an Assembly bill that currently sits in the Assembly Racing and Wagering committee, to legalize real money online casino operations in New York.
Under the bill, land-based casinos, video lottery terminals, online sports betting operators and tribes in the state would all be eligible to offer online casino gaming. In order to be licensed and offer casino games online, iGaming operators would be subject to a 30.5% tax on gross gaming revenue as well as pay a $2 million licensing fee.
What's more, Addabbo's bill would also legalize internet lottery gaming.
The senator's bill was referred to the Racing, Gaming and Wagering Committee, of which Addabbo is the chair.
Door open for New York to legalize online casinos – but major hurdle remains
Addabbo has attempted to pass legislation to legalize online casinos in NY, with each previous attempt failing. He has attributed those shortcomings to state officials and the New York State Gaming Commission focusing on a yearslong downstate casino licensing process that began in 2023 and just came to an end with the NYSGC selecting three recipients for those licenses.
While Addabbo expressed hope each year that lawmakers and regulators could easily multitask with downstate expansion and iGaming legalization, he conceded that getting the downstate process out of the way certainly creates a wider avenue for online casino passage.
Yet it wasn't just the land-based expansion that stood in the way of Addabbo and his cohorts. The biggest obstacle is the New York Hotel and Gaming Trades Council (HTC), a labor union that represents thousands of casino employees and carries plenty of sway in the Empire State.
The HTC has been staunchly opposed to online casino legalization, calling any proposal to do such "a job killer" and emphasizing that iGaming would cannibalize retail casinos and hotels.
Addabbo has remained optimistic, though, that if he could sit at a table with the HTC and other lawmakers, they could reach a happy medium to make New York the next state to legalize online casinos.
