Buffalo, NY (WBEN) As the budget wheeling and dealing continues in the New York Legislature in Albany this week, mobile sports betting remains a hot topic.
Governor Andrew Cuomo says he has two concerns about the issue, one involving who operates it, the other regarding bets on Native American territories with casinos.
During Monday's COVID conference call with reporters, the issue of mobile sports betting came up. Cuomo says there are two ways a state can handle it.
"One is you can give the casinos the right to run mobile sports betting, so you take the casinos in the states and give them licenses to run mobile sports betting and they make the profits," says Cuomo. "The second way to do it is the way we do the state lottery. We will contract directly with the mobile sports vendor like FanDuel. You can do this in New Jersey right now. We'll contract with them and we'll make the money." Cuomo says he prefers to not have the casino be the middle man.
The second issue deals with Native American casinos. "If you make a bet from your phone in a geographic area that is an Indian gaming area, they don't get that revenue because you're standing in their area, but the bet doesn't go to them, it goes through the state's vendor, so they don't get that revenue," explains Cuomo. "That's what we're trying to work through." Cuomo says the revenue goes to the state, but the claim is the tribe should get the revenue from the gaming.
Budget Director Robert Mujica says he wants all of the state to participate. "We want to honor all the terms of the existing compacts and we will working to draft the legislation that will reflect all those principles," says Mujica. He says the goal is to have an agreement that will reflect the tribes and make sure revenues not only go to the state but to the tribes involved.
