It’s big, really big. And growing bigger all the time.
Betting has been available in New York State for a long time. The bingo games that grandma enjoyed so much seem like a hundred-years-ago thing. Grandma and a whole lot of other people have a whole lot of other options today.
There is, of course, the lottery. In the most recent year with numbers available, 2024-2025, $10.3 billion in tickets were sold. School aid received $3.6 billion.
Then there are the casinos. In addition to those operated by the Seneca Nation and two other tribes, the state has licensed four commercial casinos with three being added in New York City in the near future.
Video gaming as offered by Batavia Downs, which is a part of the Western New York Regional Off-Track Betting Corporation, provides an additional gambling option. Don’t you just L-O-V-E going there? The amount of credits played in Batavia last year totaled $1.17 billion. Byron Brown. Steve Casey and Mike DeGeorge say thank you. Education’s share of the Batavia proceeds was $35 million.
The state continues to license interactive fantasy sports.
Horse racing is still offered at several locations in the state, including Batavia Downs and Buffalo Raceway but it is a declining sport.
And then there is the crown jewel of New York State gambling operations, online sports wagering. It’s the newest options for New Yorkers looking to gamble, which started in 2022.
Here are some interesting facts about online sports wagering in New York:
Originally there were just three licensed operators. Today there are nine.
In the most recently completed state fiscal year, ending in March 2025, the total amount wagered was $23.9 billion.
In the current fiscal year, through December 2025, the total handle was $19.4 billion. That’s 14 percent higher than for the same period last year.
In the year 2024-2025 the biggest month’s handle was in January followed closely by March. January, of course, is the month with the NFL and college football playoffs. March is March Madness for NCAA basketball.
In 2024 the number of what the state Gaming Commission calls “unique mobile sports wagering operators” was 4.8 million people. That is one online gambler for every 3.3 adults aged 18 and above in the state – the legal age for online gambling.
In 2022 there were only 3.8 million “operators.” That’s a growth of 26 percent in two years.
The average amount wagered per online account in 2024 was $4,329 over the course of the year.
The average wager was $41.
There were 1.706 billion transactions during 2024. That’s an average of 355 transactions per account.
There were 1,871 reported alleged underage participants.
State government’s take from online wagering activity in the 48 months since the program was kicked off four years ago is $3.9 billion.
In terms of which sports are the biggest draw for the online wagering, here are the top five including the amount wagered on the sport in 2024:
Basketball — $5.99 billion
Football — $3.42 billion
Baseball — $3.07 billion
Tennis — $2.09 billion
Hockey — $875 million
Folks also place wagers on a couple dozen other sports ranging from soccer to darts. Needless to say online sports wagering has grown significantly in just four years. There are consequences.
One is the direct impact on some of the sports. During the past year an umpire was fired from MLB for sharing his legal sports account with a friend who bet on baseball games. Two Cleveland Guardian pitchers were put on paid leave as part of a sports betting investigation.
In 2024 the Los Angeles Dodgers fired the interpreter and close friend of star Shohei Ohtani, who subsequently pleaded guilty to stealing $17 million from Ohtani’s bank account. Other gambling scandals have involved players from the NHL and the NBA.
It was not that long ago when professional sports teams went out of their ways to prevent any gambling connection whatsoever with their players and staff. Pete Rose was banned for life from baseball because of gambling issues. Paul Hornung and Alex Karras received one-year suspensions from the NFL in the early sixties.
Now everything is turned on its head. The professional leagues welcome affiliations with online wagering operators. Ads during games and signage in the stadiums all promotes the activity. Some stadiums have gone so far as to having onsite online gambling facilities.
What may be much more troubling is the impact that the expansion of online gambling may be having in terms of domestic violence, personal bankruptcies, and ruined marriages. New Yorkers are undoubtedly impacted by such problems but the legislation that authorized online sports wagering offers just a pittance of support for dealing with issues related to problem gambler education and treatment. The law sets aside $6 million for that purpose – out the $24 billion and counting bet annually.
Unfortunately, it is also probable that we will see increases in scandals involving sports participants affecting outcomes, particularly for the increasingly popular prop bets on specific things happening at specific time in a sporting event. They appear to be minor events, easy for players or referees to influence, but harder to prove collusion – an open invitation for corruption.
A footnote: the law also provides that $5 million is provided for sports programs for underserved youths – how generous.
As they sang in the show “Evita,” “the money keeps rolling…” for the state and the nine licensed online sports wagering operators. The state gets a slightly larger piece of the total take.
It would seem that when online sports wagering is growing as quickly as it has that problems affecting those who participate are growing apace. There is not much coverage of this issue. Revenues from the operators can certainly come in handy for print and electronic news journalism that is struggling for every dollar they can produce.
Not good.
Bluesky @kenkruly
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