If you have been around the online gaming world for any length of time, you have seen the exorbitant bonuses that some online casinos, poker rooms, and other gaming outlets will offer new customers. These bonus offers can often be in the hundreds of dollars, enticing people to get in the action. The state of New York, which is looking to celebrate the first anniversary of its sports betting industry next month, is looking to limit such activities, calling such bonus offers “predatory.”
Proposed Legislation Would Enable Further Regulation
New York State Senator Pete Harckham (D-District 40) has introduced a bill that, while not outlawing the practice of bonus offers, could put a significant dent into them. The bill that Harckham has offered, Senate Bill S9605, would grant the New York Gambling Commission new powers they previously did not have. These powers would be to introduce rules and regulations that would target “predatory sportsbook bonuses in mobile sports betting.”
“The mobile sports betting industry is utilizing targeted advertising that is personally tailored to lure in new customers from right within their homes,” Harckham said after introducing his legislation. “This means that following legal sports betting in New York State, multitudes of people who were not formerly presented with these predatory practices will fall susceptible to gambling addiction that could have otherwise been avoided.”
Why does Harckham have such an interest in the subject of bonuses at sportsbooks? He is the chair of the Alcoholism and Substance Abuse Committee and the co-chair of the Joint Senate Task Force on Opioids, Addiction, and Overdose Prevention. Harckham might be privy to research and information that could demonstrate that the practice of bonus offerings in sports betting and other online gaming activities might entice some to bet when they normally would not.
Bonuses of Up to $3000
Sports betting in New York will celebrate its first anniversary on January 8, and it has been a lucrative industry for the state. Originally estimated to raise upwards of $650 million in 2022, the Empire State shattered that mark in just the first nine months of the year. In October, the New York sports books earned over $42 million in tax revenues alone, at that time the highest amount in its brief history.
Gaming advertising is driving these numbers, bringing many people into the game. Bonuses of up to $3000 have been offered to new customers, but there is plenty of ways for online companies to rope in a player so that they may never see that money. It is usually done by having to “play off” a bonus offer.
When some online gaming sites give you a bonus, you cannot cash out that bonus money until you have played an equal amount of the bonus offered. For example, if you are given $100 in free bets, you cannot cash out that $100 bonus until you have played $100 worth of bets outside of that bonus money. It is something that is in the Terms and Conditions (T&C) that these sites offer and, as of now, they are legal for the companies to offer.
The issue with these offers is that sometimes players will end up depositing their own money, trying to chase down that bonus offer. In the end, the player ends up losing more money to the gaming site than what they originally won. This is perhaps where Harckham says that the gaming sites are “predatory” in their actions.
Harckham’s bill does not spell out any actions for the NYGC to take on this issue, just that it would be authorized to do whatever it takes to ensure customer protection. When the New York legislature convenes on January 4 for its next session, we will see how far the legislature and the NYGC are willing to go on this issue.
