EDITORIAL: Where is there? The New York legislature again offends common sense to expand mobile gambling

EDITORIAL: Where is there? The New York legislature again offends common sense to expand mobile gambling

Article brief provided by New York Daily News
  • Editorial Board, New York Daily News
February 22, 2023 6:34 PM
  • Editorial Board, New York Daily News

Join us, if you will, for a journey into the minds of New York State legislators, a species with brains so nimble they redefine plain language to suit their purposes.

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We give you Sen. Joe Addabbo, Albany’s chief gaming — er, gambling — enthusiast, who now presses to legalize online and smartphone poker, blackjack and more in a state where the Constitution explicitly forbids gambling with limited carve outs including the lottery, horse tracks and at seven full-fledged casinos.

The Legislature first made a mockery of this ban by claiming that daily fantasy sports betting, whereby participants assemble a roster of players and wager money based on their performance on the field, wasn’t betting at all. It was skill, not chance. The state’s highest court even blessed the ridiculous interpretation.