There’s A New NY Sports Betting Bill; Can New York Pass It In Two Weeks?

At long last, New York Assemblyman Gary Pretlow sent his sports betting bill for introduction Monday.

PlayUSA obtained an advance copy of the legislation before it finishes processing and is assigned a bill number, and it has several differences from the draft that had been previously reported.

The terminology providing the professional sports leagues a royalty as opposed to an integrity fee remains, but now there are stipulations for the leagues to claim that money.

New York is trying to pass sports betting legislation before a scheduled adjournment of the legislature on June 20.

Royalty with a catch

In the earlier draft of this bill, Pretlow pledged the same one-quarter percent of all wagers made to sports leagues that is in the Senate bill, but rather than submit to the ruse of referring to it as an integrity fee as the NBA and MLB had proposed, he called it a royalty. The leagues have been lobbying heavily in the statehouse.

In doing so, he deleted the steps laid out in Sen. John Bonacic‘s bill that the leagues had to take in order to get the fee. It was free money with no strings attached.

Rather than automatically getting their royalty payments, the leagues would need to submit a claim by April 13 of each year for disbursement of the royalty fee funds remitted by casinos in the previous calendar year.

Within 30 days of submitting this claim, the league must meet with the commission established by the bill to provide “evidence of policies, procedures and training programs it has implemented to protect the integrity of its sports events.”

This language is taken from Bonacic’s bill, but it seems incongruous to have an integrity stipulation on a royalty.

Still easy money for leagues

Having to submit a claim for the royalty and have one formality of a meeting with the commission would surely be agreeable to the sports leagues.

The Senate bill also includes an annual report on usage of the fees that is subject to audit by the commission. Since the Assembly bill isn’t requiring that royalty fees go toward maintaining integrity of the games, that isn’t necessary.

Pretlow does add a stipulation not in Bonacic’s bill that sports governing bodies registered to obtain the fee must be headquartered in the US.

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