New York Sen. Joseph Addabbo is continuing his push to regulate online casinos in the state with a refiling of the bill that failed to gain traction in 2024. One of the biggest obstacles to last year’s effort was opposition to iGaming from unions representing workers at New York’s land-based casinos. Unless circumstances change, that could prove as insurmountable in 2025 as it did in 2024.
Casino workers have expressed fears that legal online casino play would cannibalize revenue from the casinos they work at, resulting in lost jobs. Addabbo has insisted that he is willing to make concessions in his legislation to address those concerns but it’s unclear whether the unions are similarly eager to compromise.
Even if they are, there are other potential issues standing in the way of the passage of Addabbo’s bill in 2025.
Addabbo files S2614
For a third consecutive year, Addabbo has filed his version of a bill to expand New York’s framework for regulated online gambling to include online casinos, as well as an online lottery. For 2025, the legislation is S2614.
The bill is currently awaiting action from the New York Senate Racing, Gaming, and Wagering Committee. Addabbo has returned as the chair of that committee.
In 2024, Addabbo hoped that the bill would be included as part of the state’s budget. However, he expressed to PlayUSA that that wouldn’t happen in March 2024.
Addabbo showed his determination by pushing for the legislation as a standalone issue later in the 2024 session. That is when he encountered opposition from a casino workers union.
Union stands firm on cannibalization concerns
In April 2024, Addabbo told PlayUSA that he wanted to work with the Hotel Trades Council (HTC), a part of the AFL-CIO that represents hospitality workers, to find a version of regulated iGaming that the union would accept. At the time, HTC Political Director Bhav Tibrewal characterized Addabbo’s actions as “putting bells and whistles on a job killer.”
Addabbo wrote a funding measure into S2614 that would provide as much as $40 million for casino workers. However, Tibrewal stated that “no matter how much state revenue iGaming creates, if it comes at the cost of hurting the prospects for jobs at casinos, in our mind it’s a no-brainer that it’s the wrong thing to do.”
The union’s concerns could only amplify if S2614 does not pass in 2025. In future years, the HTC could count many more members in New York.
Downstate casinos complicate online casino legislation
New York gaming regulators and public officials are currently in the process of deciding on sites for up to three brick-and-mortar casinos in the southern part of the state. On a longer-term basis, the opening of those casinos could boost the HTC’s membership and deepen concerns about cannibalization.
In the short term, the process of identifying sites and selecting licensees for those opportunities has taken precedence over online casino expansion. As regulators have currently given themselves until the end of 2025 to make decisions about licensees and sites, that could stymie progress on S2614 in 2025.
To combat that, Addabbo and other supporters of iGaming may need to convince New York Gov. Kathy Hochul and others that the state’s gaming regulators can “walk and chew gum at the same time,” or process the downstate casino applications and roll out iGaming simultaneously.
Hochul has appeared to be indifferent to iGaming, however, as she did not include revenue from that gaming vertical in her budget proposal for 2024. If the same proves true in 2025, that could telegraph that online casino legalization remains a non-priority for her.
Regardless, the story for 2025 could not resolve differently if Addabbo had not filed the bill to start the narrative. That part of the story is now officially in the books.