Speaking after an extended Assembly session, he said the main stumbling block, according to the Assembly’s Speaker, Carl Heastie, and Governor Cuomo, was the constitutionality issue.
Addabbo said: “We have had close to a dozen attorneys write legal briefs about how there is no constitutional issue. So to use that phrase as reasoning is, to me, basically a smokescreen for something you don’t want to do.”
Governor Cuomo has previously been outspoken in his doubts on online sports betting, describing the amount New Jersey generates through the channel as a “rounding error in New York.”
Addabbo saw several issues in this attitude and said: “When he said that, my staff and I chuckled.
“We said that is actually a half-correct statement. What he was referring to was a true statement, $13m, but that was in one single month. That’s what he didn’t say.”
The Senator said he does not understand why the Governor would say no to additional state revenue, especially when 80% of gaming revenue in New York goes to education.
He also brought up the thriving illegal market, and finds it embarrassing the government is sitting back and allowing this to happen.
Addabbo singled out New Jersey’s Governor, Phil Murphy, for praise, saying New York’s neighbouring state has great ambitions and wants to overtake Nevada.
Looking forward, he said the process of constitutional amendments takes three years, indicating it could be that long until sports betting moves online in New York.
He said: “Should the Assembly and the Governor not do anything, we go back to the drawing board.
“We’ll have another year that we’ve lost out on this revenue and all this additional funding. We’ll try to figure out if we do it again next year. Do we try to tinker with the constitutional amendment?
"We’re not saying legalise online poker, or online roulette, just online sports betting. Not the Academy Awards, not the Grammys, or betting on the rain, just online sports betting. It boggles the mind, it really does."
Read the full interview on GamingAmerica.com here.
