Is Online Gambling Legal in New York? Sportsbooks Yes, Online Casinos No (2026)

Last updated: October 31, 2026

New York is the biggest sports betting market in the US, yet it still has no legal online casino. That gap is why “is online gambling legal in New York?” gets confusing answers. Several ranking pages promote “New York casino sites” that are offshore, others still describe sweepstakes casinos as a legal workaround, and few mention that the state is now suing Kalshi.

The short answer: some online gambling is legal in New York and some is not. As of October 2026 you can legally bet on sports through nine mobile sportsbooks licensed by the New York State Gaming Commission (21+), play licensed daily fantasy sports, bet on horse racing through licensed ADW sites and buy lottery products through approved channels. Real-money online casinos and online poker are not legal: the 2026 online casino bill (S2614) never got a vote. Sweepstakes casinos have been banned since December 5, 2025, and the state is in court trying to shut down Kalshi’s sports contracts.

This guide covers each product, the minimum age for each, why the online casino bill keeps stalling, how the sweepstakes ban reaches suppliers and affiliates, where Kalshi stands, the penalties for illegal gambling and what it all means for operators, suppliers and affiliates.

What gambling is legal in New York? Product-by-product status

This matches the New York row in our US gambling laws by state hub: no online casino, online and retail sports betting, licensed DFS, sweepstakes banned under S 5935, and 21 at commercial casinos with 18 or 21 at tribal venues.

Is online sports betting legal in New York?

Yes. New York legalized mobile sports wagering in the April 2021 state budget, and the first legal mobile bets were placed on January 8, 2022. Every bet has to be placed from inside New York and is routed to a licensed commercial casino’s servers, which is why the apps use geolocation checks.

The market is the largest in the country. In calendar year 2025 New Yorkers bet about $26.3 billion online, sportsbooks kept about $2.55 billion in gross revenue, and the state collected about $1.32 billion in tax, according to Gaming Commission figures reported by Covers. That tax take comes from the 51% rate on gross gaming revenue, the highest in the US. Most of it goes to public education, with $5 million a year set aside for youth sports and $6 million for problem gambling programs.

Which gambling apps are legal in NYC? Is DraftKings legal in NY?

The Gaming Commission’s sports wagering page lists nine licensed mobile operators: Bally Bet, BetMGM, Caesars Sportsbook, DraftKings, theScore Bet, Fanatics, FanDuel, Resorts World Bet and Rush Street Interactive (BetRivers). The same apps work in New York City and everywhere else in the state, because licences are statewide.

So yes, DraftKings and FanDuel are legal in New York for sports betting, and both also run fantasy and horse racing products there. What neither can offer is its online casino. The DraftKings Casino and FanDuel Casino apps are live only in states that license iGaming, such as New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Michigan, West Virginia and Connecticut, and their New York pages ask users to lobby for legalization rather than offering games.

What New York does not let you bet on

Licensed sportsbooks may not take bets on any game involving a New York college team, wherever it is played, or on high school sports. The Commission also approves each operator’s wagering menu, so markets offered in other states can be missing in New York. For operators, those blocks have to be built into the trading feed, not just the terms. Our guide on how to start a sportsbook covers the licence and platform side.

Are online casinos legal in New York?

No. New York has no licence for real-money online slots, table games, live dealer games or online poker. Offering them to people in New York without a licence is illegal under the state’s promoting gambling statutes, whatever the operator’s licence elsewhere.

What happened to the 2026 online casino bill?

Sen. Joseph Addabbo, who chairs the Senate Racing, Gaming and Wagering Committee, carried S2614 again in 2026. It would have let commercial casinos, racinos, tribes and the existing mobile sportsbooks offer online slots, table games, live dealer and peer-to-peer poker under Gaming Commission licences, with about $150 million in one-time licence fees and a requirement that live dealer studios be in New York. The 2025 version proposed a 30.5% tax on gross gaming revenue.

The bill never got a committee vote. In May, Addabbo said he would not push it because “the governor would probably not sign it,” and Gov. Kathy Hochul’s office would only say she “will review any legislation that passes” both chambers (Yogonet, May 13, 2026). The session ended in June with no floor vote in either house. That is the fourth straight year an online casino bill has stalled.

When will online casinos be legal in New York?

Not before 2027 at the earliest, and realistically later. Three obstacles keep repeating:

1. The governor. Hochul has not included iGaming in a budget or endorsed a bill, and without her support sponsors will not spend votes on it.
2. The new downstate casinos. The Gaming Facility Location Board approved three New York City licences in December 2025: Resorts World NYC in Queens, Steve Cohen and Hard Rock’s Metropolitan Park next to Citi Field, and Bally’s Bronx at Ferry Point. Licensees paid hundreds of millions in fees and are planning billions in construction, and casino worker unions argue online casinos would cannibalize them. Metropolitan Park and Bally’s Bronx are not expected to open until about 2030.
3. Tribal exclusivity. The Seneca, Oneida and Saint Regis Mohawk compacts give tribes exclusivity in parts of upstate New York, so any online casino law has to deal with revenue sharing or a tribal role.

Addabbo has said the question is when New York authorizes online casinos, not whether, and he is expected to file again for the 2027 session. Watch the governor’s January budget proposal first: if iGaming is not in it, a 2027 law is unlikely.

Land-based casinos: what New York already allows

New York has three tiers of casino gaming:

• Commercial casinos: the four upstate resort casinos licensed after the 2013 constitutional amendment (del Lago, Rivers Schenectady, Resorts World Catskills and Tioga Downs), plus Resorts World NYC, which opened as a full casino with live table games in April 2026 under its new downstate licence.
• Video lottery facilities (racinos): sites such as Empire City in Yonkers, Saratoga, Batavia Downs, Jake’s 58 and Finger Lakes, operating slot-style VLTs under the Lottery.
• Tribal casinos: the Seneca Nation (Niagara, Buffalo Creek and Allegany), the Oneida Indian Nation (Turning Stone, Yellow Brick Road and Point Place) and the Saint Regis Mohawk Tribe (Akwesasne Mohawk Casino).

None of these can take online casino bets. Several of them hold or partner on the mobile sportsbook licences, which is the route online casino would most likely follow too.

Are sweepstakes casinos legal in New York?

No. Gov. Hochul signed S5935A on December 5, 2025, and it took effect immediately as Chapter 605 of the Laws of 2025. It adds § 912 to the Racing, Pari-Mutuel Wagering and Breeding Law and bans “online sweepstakes games”: any online game that uses a dual-currency system, simulates casino-style gaming (slots, video poker, table games, lottery games, bingo or sports wagering) and lets players win cash or cash equivalents. Free-to-play social casinos with no cash prizes are not covered.

The part that matters most for this audience is who the law reaches. Besides operators and promoters, it names financial institutions, payment processors, geolocation providers, gaming content suppliers, platform providers and media affiliates that support sweepstakes games in New York. Penalties are $10,000 to $100,000 per violation, plus loss of, or ineligibility for, a New York gaming licence. The Gaming Commission, State Police and Attorney General can all investigate, subpoena and send cease-and-desist letters.

Enforcement started before the law. In 2025 Attorney General Letitia James ordered a large group of sweepstakes casinos to stop serving New York, and most major brands, including Stake.us, Chumba and Global Poker, had already left. On September 9, 2026 the Attorney General announced an $8 million settlement with VGW, Chumba’s parent, covering past New York play even though VGW had exited in 2025. Leaving the state does not end exposure.

Some ranking pages still describe sweepstakes casinos as legal in New York under “sweepstakes promotions law”, or list Stake.us and Chumba as options for New Yorkers. Both are wrong as of December 2025. Our sweepstakes casino legal map puts New York among the 13 closed states, and our guide to where Stake.us is legal lists New York as excluded.

Is Kalshi legal in New York?

Kalshi is available in New York, from age 18, but the state is trying to shut down its sports contracts and the courts have so far sided with the state. The timeline:

1. October 2025: the Gaming Commission sent Kalshi a cease-and-desist letter over its sports event contracts. Kalshi sued in federal court.
2. April 2026: the CFTC and the United States sued New York to stop it applying gambling law to federally registered exchanges.
3. July 2026: U.S. District Judge Analisa Torres denied Kalshi’s request to block enforcement, holding that the Commodity Exchange Act does not preempt New York gambling law as applied to sports contracts and that Kalshi could apply for a New York licence. Kalshi appealed to the Second Circuit, where the CFTC has filed a brief supporting it.
4. July 31, 2026: Attorney General James sued Kalshi in state court seeking to halt its New York operations and at least $36 billion, plus $100,000 per unauthorized wager offer (Office of the Attorney General). Kalshi removed the case to federal court the same day.

As of October 2026 Kalshi’s sports contracts are still live in New York while those cases run. The 18+ age is a central complaint, since licensed sportsbooks in New York must stop anyone under 21. Our guides on whether Kalshi is legal and how prediction markets work track the circuit split that will probably decide New York’s case too.

Is online daily fantasy sports legal in New York?

Yes. New York licensed “interactive fantasy sports” in 2016 under Article 14 of the Racing Law, and the Court of Appeals upheld that law in March 2022 against a challenge that it violated the constitutional ban on gambling. DraftKings, FanDuel and other operators must register with the Gaming Commission, pay a 15% tax on New York fantasy revenue and accept players from 18. Pick’em products are the area to check product by product, because the Commission has required operators to change formats that look like player-versus-house betting.

How old do you have to be to gamble in New York?

The gambling age in New York is 21 for commercial casinos and sports betting, and 18 for the lottery, horse racing and daily fantasy sports. Tribal casinos set their own age under their compacts.

For affiliates, 21 is the safe default for any New York gambling content except lottery, racing and DFS.

Is it illegal to gamble on offshore sites in New York?

For operators, yes. Under Penal Law Article 225, promoting gambling in the second degree is a class A misdemeanor, and it becomes a class E felony (promoting gambling in the first degree) when someone runs a bookmaking operation taking more than five bets totalling more than $5,000 in a day or runs a lottery-style scheme. The Gaming Commission states that unlicensed offshore operators act unlawfully in New York and that players have no recourse if they do not pay.

New York law treats a person who only places a bet as a “player” rather than a promoter, so individual bettors are rarely if ever prosecuted for online play. The practical risks are frozen balances, unpaid winnings and no regulator to complain to. The legal risk sits with operators, payment processors and anyone promoting the site, which is why pages that steer New Yorkers to “legal offshore casinos” are misleading. Our guide on whether offshore sports betting is legal covers how federal law (the Wire Act and UIGEA) fits in.

Do you have to pay tax on gambling winnings in New York?

Yes. Gambling winnings are taxable federal income and count toward New York taxable income, taxed at state rates up to 10.9%, plus New York City income tax of up to 3.876% for city residents. Licensed sportsbooks and casinos issue Form W-2G above the federal thresholds, and prediction market results are reported differently: Kalshi gives users a profit and loss statement for event contracts rather than a contract-level Form 1099-B (see our guide to Kalshi taxes). See our guides to US gambling taxes and claiming gambling losses for the 2026 federal changes to loss deductions.

What to watch next

• Kalshi cases: the Second Circuit appeal, the Attorney General’s removed lawsuit and the CFTC’s suit against the state. A Supreme Court decision on the circuit split would override all of them.
• January 2027: the governor’s budget proposal and the start of the 2027 session. Expect Addabbo’s online casino bill to return, plus prediction market bills such as S9414.
• Sweepstakes enforcement: more Attorney General settlements following the VGW model, and possible first actions against suppliers or affiliates under § 912.
• Downstate casinos: Resorts World NYC’s expansion, with Metropolitan Park and Bally’s Bronx under construction for roughly 2030.

Our monthly iGaming regulation roundup covers each of these as it lands.

What this means for operators, suppliers and affiliates

Compare how other large states handle the same questions in our guides to California, which also banned sweepstakes casinos, Illinois, which moved against sweepstakes without a statute, and Virginia, whose 2026 online casino bills came closer than New York’s.

Next step

If you are entering New York or advising someone who is, start with the Gaming Commission’s rules for the product you run and line up counsel before the 2027 session; our list of iGaming law firms includes firms with US state experience.

This article is general information and analysis, not legal advice. State positions change quickly; confirm current law with qualified counsel before making decisions.