{"id":71108,"date":"2025-12-15T15:11:37","date_gmt":"2025-12-15T15:11:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/71108\/"},"modified":"2025-12-15T15:11:37","modified_gmt":"2025-12-15T15:11:37","slug":"albany-must-say-no-to-the-online-casino-temptation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/71108\/","title":{"rendered":"Albany must SAY NO to the online-casino temptation"},"content":{"rendered":"

Uh-oh: The New York Times last week dropped a Page One story marveling at the huge revenue windfalls Pennsylvania and New Jersey have reaped from legalizing the \u201ccasino on your phone\u201d \u2014 surely pushing a truly terrible idea to the top of Albany\u2019s agenda.<\/p>\n

In the seven states that allow full-on online gambling<\/a> \u2014 slots and all \u2014 the government\u2019s take dwarfs its income from taxing online sports \u201cgaming.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pennsylvania rakes in $100 million a month; Jersey, $50 million.<\/p>\n

How can Albany resist betting that it\u2019ll do far better from \u201ci-Gaming\u201d? <\/p>\n

And never mind that legal gambling is a highly regressive revenue-raiser, taking a far, far bigger chunk of low-income folks\u2019 paychecks than it does from fat cats. <\/p>\n

Nor that gambling addiction ruins countless lives even when you have to go to a brick-and-mortar casino to truly chase the dragon.<\/p>\n

\t\t\tMore From\t\t\t\t\t\t\tPost Editorial Board<\/p>\n

Then again, New York lawmakers are already hooked on the jackpots of legalized \u201cgaming.\u201d<\/p>\n

Just this month, the state Gaming Facility Location Board approved three casinos for New York City<\/a> \u2014 two in Queens and one in The Bronx; the hope is that these will be bigger cash cows than the earlier upstate ones.<\/p>\n

(If nothing else, the long process for OK\u2019ing casinos in the city generated vast campaign donations for every New York pol willing to smile on the idea \u2014 starting with then-Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who got the whole sick scheme rolling years ago.)<\/p>\n

Just by coincidence, state Sen. Joe Addabo (D-Queens), chair of the Senate Racing, Gaming and Wagering Committee, raised the idea of legalizing i-Gaming shortly after the downstate casinos were OK\u2019d and Gov. Kathy Hochul signed in law his bill banning \u201csweepstakes casinos,\u201d online sites that only let you gamble with virtual money.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Addabbo was a key player in New York\u2019s legalizing of online sports betting; he\u2019s long pushed i-Gaming to provide Albany more cash.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\tStart your day with all you need to know\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tMorning Report delivers the latest news, videos, photos and more.\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\tThanks for signing up!\n\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

Oh, he also says it will keep New York competitive with other states \u2014 without mentioning that the \u201ccompetition\u201d is to see who can best bleed the most vulnerable.<\/p>\n

Addabo throws in mention of addressing problem gambling as though it were a public-service announcement.<\/p>\n

The i-Gaming temptation hits when the Legislature will be more eager than usual to find fresh sources of lucre: Albany\u2019s facing a cumulative budget gap of $34.3 billion through Fiscal Year 2029, plus pressure to fund Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani\u2019s $10 billion or more in \u201cfree stuff.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

Tax hikes can only raise so much from the nation\u2019s already-highest-taxed residents; actually cutting state spending is anathema to New York\u2019s Democratic leaders, especially when they need the support of all the tax-sucking special interests in the coming election year.<\/p>\n

If you think it\u2019s obscene for progressives to exploit the poor, start giving your state reps an earful \u2014 or else New York\u2019s so-called \u201cleaders\u201d won\u2019t be able to resist this temptation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Uh-oh: The New York Times last week dropped a Page One story marveling at the huge revenue windfalls…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":71109,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[4241,1459,304,426,11538,9,11,10,49,51,50,36370,36371,299,6115,4281],"class_list":["post-71108","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-albany","tag-casinos","tag-editorial","tag-kathy-hochul","tag-legislature","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-headlines","tag-new-york-news","tag-new-york-state","tag-new-york-state-headlines","tag-new-york-state-news","tag-online-casinos","tag-online-gambling","tag-opinion","tag-sports-betting","tag-state-budget"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71108","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=71108"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71108\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/71109"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=71108"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=71108"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=71108"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}