Year after year, New York online poker keeps getting pushed back. The state’s inability to pass an online gaming bill has been vexing. Legislation has breezed through the NY Senate on multiple occasions, only to run into an invisible brick wall in the lower chamber. Assemblyman Gary Pretlow, the key lawmaker on gaming issues, has offered a carousel of excuses to explain the Assembly’s inaction. With the state poised to take on sports betting in 2019, online poker will almost certainly get another look. Just don’t expect the two issues to commingle. That’s something Pretlow is not a fan of…

A deal for Bet365 New York sports betting has been reached between the UK-based online gaming giant and Empire Resorts. The deal will lead to the two setting up online and live sports betting at the Resorts World Catskills casino in New York state. Sports betting has not yet started in New York, but the enabling law is on the books and the casinos are getting ready to go. The partnership is a “strategic alliance” that involves substantial new investment. As an indication of the long-term commitment, bet365 will buy up to $50 million of Empire Resorts shares in two…

A judge in New York has ruled that fantasy sports are gambling, placing the industry in doubt for one of the biggest markets in the country. The Albany judge said that daily fantasy sports (DFS) should be illegal in the state. Acting Supreme Court Justice Gerald Connolly made the ruling on Friday in response to a lawsuit submitted by anti-gambling organizations, according to the Journal News. Connolly ruled that a law dating back to 2016 that allows DFS to operate is in violation of the gambling ban in the state constitution. The lawsuit was launched after the state’s lawmakers legalized…

New York Assemblyman Gary Pretlow says he was eight Democrats away from getting the online poker bill put to a vote last week at the end of the state’s legislative session. While admitting that “we didn’t really look at it” in the final weeks as New York online poker took a back seat to a more urgent sports betting bill that also didn’t pass, Pretlow attested that he had a commitment from 68 Democrats that they would support A 5250. Officially, the bill finished with 51 Assembly members signed on as supporters, including 47 Democrats and four Republicans. Another assertion…

With Assembly Member Gary Pretlow’s latest sports betting bill referred to the Assembly’s Racing and Wagering Committee in the New York State last week, lawmakers are up against a short clock to make sports betting legal in New York. The legislature adjourns June 20, leaving seven business days to make NY sports betting legal before having to wait until 2019. Pretlow (D-District 89) officially introduced his bill, A11144, last Friday and as yet, no formal action has taken place in the Racing and Wagering Committee, of which he is the chairman. According to Pretlow’s office, the bill does not yet…

Online poker in New York is turning into the legislative version of Robert Louis Stevenson’s literary masterpiece, the Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. After a couple of close calls in each of the last two years, Albany lawmakers don’t seem to know if they’re coming or going in 2018. And depending on who you ask, online poker efforts have either taken a step forward or a step backward in 2018. On the one hand you have first-term Assemblyman Clyde Vanel, who appears to be spearheading the current online poker effort in the Assembly. “The budget effort didn’t…