iGaming No Longer the Sure Bet It Once was Considered — In New York or Elsewhere
Key New York state lawmaker does not see iGaming legalized there anytime soon.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, NY – Anyone harboring hopes that New York would entertain legalizing iGaming anytime soon had their optimism dashed by state Assemblymember Carrie Woerner on Tuesday.
When asked about the future of online casino wagering during a panel at The Racing and Gaming Conference at Saratoga, Woerner (D-Round Lake), who chairs the Assembly’s committee on racing and gaming, delivered a blunt message. She sees the legalization of such games as “perpetually five years out.”
When the head of the committee central to pass iGaming legislation says something along those lines, you can go ahead and cross off the Empire State as one of the next states to join seven others (eight, if you count Nevada with online poker) with licensed casino apps.
For years, the conversation at conferences like this one in Saratoga, the Global Gaming Expo, or SBC Summit Americas was that the national embrace of iGaming was a near certainty. Now, we need to replace certainty with eventually.
Or maybe ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ would be a better alternative.
“Certainty” implies it’s happening soon, and maybe in a state or two that’s the case. The idea that iGaming will all of a sudden start picking up the same steam that sports betting did a few years ago, though, is pure folly. It’s something I realized a couple years ago, and I’d bet it’s the overwhelming sentiment across the gaming industry.
During the iGaming discussion, the crowd of more than 200 attendees was asked how many states would offer iGaming in the next five years. Between 10 and 20 ended up as the top answer, meaning as few as two or three more states would legalize in that time frame, and I lean as heavily as possible toward 10 rather than 20.
iGaming Never Got the Sports Betting Push
There was a time when I thought rapid iGaming expansion was inevitable.
Data from states like New Jersey and Pennsylvania showed iGaming generated revenues far surpassing online sportsbooks. It also seemed that states would covet the new revenue stream coming out of the COVID-19 pandemic, when federal funds propped up state budgets.
The economy dipped, but rather than state politicians crying out for new sources of revenue, they’ve responded to constituents’ complaints about erosion of consumer spending power.
“We’re seeing a stagnation of disposable income in the economy generally,” Woerner said. “So if disposable income is stagnant, the more money you’re spending on gambling, that’s less money you’re spending on going out to dinner, on going to movies, or shopping on our Main Street.”
There also has never been a grand public push for iGaming as there was for sports betting, even though data shows online casino apps generate far more revenue than mobile sportsbooks. With sports betting becoming legal thanks to a 2018 Supreme Court decision, it created significant grassroots support for something new, especially with voters in states who saw their neighbors across state lines get access before them.
It also did not hurt that sports betting ads were everywhere, whether it was on television, the radio, a highway billboard or in a stadium. That ubiquity, however, soon became an annoyance for some, including the politicians whose support operators need to pass iGaming.
Add to that, stories about underage kids gaining access to gambling helped raise concerns that advertising would only proliferate for a product that threatened to rake more money from people holding the phones.
The Future of iGaming Will Be … Slow
This should not be considered an autopsy of the iGaming push, nor is it criticism of online casinos. Considering how many people spend time playing games on their phone, it only makes sense that a segment of that crowd would also enjoy playing slots or blackjack or any other game you could find on the Strip.
However, rather than growing at the Manifest Destiny in a microwave pace that sports betting maintained for years, iGaming’s growth will be far, far slower. That’s already apparent, and conventional wisdom does nothing to change expectations anytime soon.
Maybe Virginia, which was on the brink this year, gets across the finish line in 2027. Perhaps Maryland follows, maybe Indiana, or the District of Columbia. (Most iGaming states are clustered in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast, another argument against rapid expansion.)
Barring something unforeseen, growth at a glacial pace is the future of iGaming in America. Maybe a tipping point arrives that – eventually – changes that. Don’t expect that to start with New York.
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