West
Panel says online gambling could soon be coming to New York, Maryland, and possibly California
With Rhode Island this week becoming the seventh U.S. state to launch internet gambling, industry panelists at an online gambling conference predicted Wednesday that several additional states would join the fray in the next few years.
Speaking at the Next.io forum on internet gambling and sports betting, several mentioned New York and Maryland as likely candidates to start offering internet casino games soon.
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And some noted that, despite years of difficulty crafting a deal that satisfies commercial and tribal casinos and card rooms, California is simply too big a market not to offer internet gambling.
“Some of the dream is not quite fulfilled, which creates some opportunity,” said Rob Heller, CEO of Spectrum Gaming Capital.
Before Rhode Island went live with online casino games on Tuesday, only six U.S. states offered them: New Jersey, Connecticut, Delaware, Pennsylvania, Michigan and West Virginia. Nevada offers internet poker but not online casino games.
Elaine Vallaster plays an online slots game on her tablet in Hazlet, N.J. on November 24, 2023. (AP Photo/Wayne Parry)
Shawn Fluharty, a West Virginia state delegate and chairman of a national group of legislators from gambling states, listed New York and Maryland as the most likely states to add internet gambling soon.
He was joined in that assessment by Brandt Iden, vice president of government affairs for Fanatics Betting and Gaming and a former Michigan state representative.
Both men acknowledged the difficulty of passing online casino legislation; Thirty-eight states plus Washington, D.C., currently offer sports betting, compared to seven with internet casino gambling.
Part of the problem is that some lawmakers are unfamiliar with the industry, Iden said.
“We talk about i-gaming, and they think we’re talking about video games,” he said.
Fluharty added he has “colleagues who struggle to silence their phones, and we’re going to tell them gambling can be done on their phones?”
Some lawmakers fear that offering online casino games will cannibalize revenue from existing brick-and-mortar casinos, although industry executives say online gambling can complement in-person gambling. Fluharty said four casinos opened in Pennsylvania after the state began offering internet casino gambling.
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A study commissioned by Maryland projected that adding internet gambling would generate $900 million in annual online betting revenue by 2029, but that it would cost brick-and-mortar casinos $200 million.
The key to wider adoption of internet gambling is playing up the tax revenue it generates, and emphasizing programs to discourage compulsive gambling and help those with a problem, panelists said. New York state senator Joseph Addabbo, one of the leading advocates of online betting in his state, recently introduced legislation to allocate at least $6 million a year to problem gambling programs.
“If you tell them we’re funding things by passing i-gaming, or we can raise your taxes, what do you think the answer is going to be?” Fluharty asked, citing college scholarships as something for which gambling revenue could be used.
One bill pending in the Maryland state legislature that would legalize internet gambling would impose a lower tax rate on operations that offer live dealer casino games and thus create additional jobs.
New York lawmakers have made a strong push for internet gambling in recent years, but Gov. Kathy Hochul did not include it in her executive budget proposal this year.
Edward King, co-founding partner of Acies Investments, said California — where disputes among tribal and commercial gambling operations have stalled approval of online casino games and sports betting — will likely join the fray.
“It’s an inevitability for a state the size of California,” he said. “The tax dollars are too big.”
Adam Greenblatt, CEO of BetMGM, disagreed, saying California likely won’t approve online gambling anytime soon, and that Texas, another potentially lucrative market, “has successfully resisted it for 20 years.”
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An abandoned house near San Francisco’s Castro neighborhood that has been popular with squatters for years is now for sale.
On Yukon Street at the edge of Kite Hill in the Eureka Valley neighborhood, the house with arched windows over the garage, including one that’s broken, is listed for $1.3 million.
Listing agent Zara Rowbotham and her brother, James, put together a promotional video highlighting the home’s fixer-upper potential.
There is no running water or power at the house. Neighbors have reported to the city that squatters relieve themselves at the top floor atrium.
“They needed a place to do it, so they had the nice manners to do it in one basket,” Rowbotham said. “Unfortunately it was an outside basket right in front of one of the neighbors’ houses.”
With the nature of San Francisco’s red-hot housing market, Rowbothom said they already have a potential buyer.
Rowbothom added the city is swirling with money right now and there are few places to buy, so properties like the one on Yukon Street – even with a history of squatters – are being snapped up quickly. Rowbothom said they’re going for millions of dollars, with people paying cash a lot of the time.
Denver will use $3 million of its contingency fund money to help pay out settlements this year under an ordinance the City Council approved Monday.
The council makes a similar transfer every year, but the amount varies depending on the settlements reached, said Laura Swartz, the spokesperson for the city’s finance department.
“It is difficult to budget for settlements in advance because the amounts and timing can be unpredictable based on each case’s own scheduling, negotiations and court decisions,” Swartz said.
Every year, the city sets aside $2 million for settlements in the budget. Officials request a transfer from the contingency fund for anything needed above that amount. The 2026 transfer brings the amount that will be used to pay out settlements this year to $5 million so far.
This year’s allotment will leave the city with $30.5 million remaining in its contingency fund. The contingency fund is separate in the annual budget from the city’s reserves, which officials have been working to replenish from a recent low point.
The city has been ordered to pay millions of dollars in settlements in recent years related to the Denver Police Department’s actions during the George Floyd protests.
Earlier this month, the council approved about $2.87 million in payments for 13 people who alleged that local police violated their constitutional rights during the 2020 protests.
In April, a federal appeals court ruled that the city must also pay $14 million to another group of protesters, upholding a jury verdict. The city hasn’t yet said how it will pay out that amount.
“The city is contemplating the next steps first and expects to have more to share soon,” Swartz said.
The city has approved a total of $24.2 million for settlements related to the George Floyd protests, according to the City Attorney’s Office. That count doesn’t include the $14 million the appeals court ordered the city to pay in April.
“This is money that we could have used for any other purpose,” Councilwoman Shontel Lewis said during a council meeting. “It represents a missed opportunity.”
The council unanimously approved the contingency money transfer through its consent agenda.
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Two weeks ago, we reported on information prepared for a scheduled meeting of the City Council Public Safety Committee, suggesting that SPD might have to slow its hiring because fewer officers were leaving, which posed a budget dilemma. That briefing scheduled for the committee’s June 9 meeting ultimately was postponed because it was the last item on the agenda and the previous two ran long. It’s now scheduled for tomorrow’s committee meeting (9:30 am Tuesday, June 23), same slide deck, but this time it’s the second item on the agenda, so not likely to be bumped again. It’s a regularly scheduled quarterly update, no votes scheduled nor attached proposals, but it can be viewed in the prism of the city’s looming budget shortfall. The agenda explains how to comment and/or watch, in person or remotely.
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