Guide to New York Online Casinos — Are They Legit?

Top Gambling Sites Serving New York

• BetUS  – Best NY Gambling Site
• SlotsandCasino  – Best Online Casino for New York Residents
• SportsBetting.ag  – Best Poker Room for NY
• BetOnline  – Best Live Dealer Site for New Yorkers
• Vegas Casino Online  – Best New York Video Poker Site
• BC.Game  – Best Crypto Site for New York

New York Gambling Sites Compared

How We Choose the Best Gambling Sites for New Yorkers

Bonuses

Entertainment

Safety

Transactions

We expect the sites we recommend to our readers to be equally interested in providing top-quality gambling experiences for the patrons we send them. That’s why we’ve developed our B.E.S.T. system, where we grade each gambling site on everything about them that is important to New Yorkers.

Whether the site is a casino, a poker room, a sportsbook, or any combination of those three, we have an 11-page list of expectations we use to grade each site.

Here’s how we rank New York gambling sites:

• Bonuses – Gambling sites encourage new patronage with generous bonuses. These include first-deposit matches of anywhere from 50% to 500% and can apply to a single deposit or to several. We sharpen our pencils and inspect these bonuses. We sharpen our pencils and inspect these bonuses, as well as compare them to others in the industry. We apply this same level of scrutiny to the site’s reload, referral, and loyalty bonuses, as well.
• Entertainment Features – While we all have varying definitions of “entertainment”, the foundations for having fun in a gambling environment are quite objective. Are the games provably fair? Is the sportsbook navigable by newer bettors but still sophisticated enough for high rollers? We also check to ensure the site works on all platforms, PC, tablet, and mobile.
• Safety and Security — Your personal and financial information is yours alone, so we ensure that each site has safeguards in place to ensure they stay that way. We first check to see that the site uses Transport Layer Security (TLS) for data encryption. We also read the site’s privacy policy for clarity and completeness. Only when a site has shown that it takes financial and personal privacy seriously do we consider recommending it to New York gamblers.
• Transactions – The way a site handles deposits and withdrawals says a lot about its dedication to integrity. We check for the various daily/weekly/monthly limits on deposits and withdrawals, the forms withdrawals may take (bankwire, cryptocurrency only, etc.) We make a note if the site charges a withdrawal fee, and we check to ensure the site adheres to banking-level encryption during deposit and withdrawal transactions.

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Is Online Gambling Legal in New York?

As with most other states, the answer to the question “Can you legally gamble online in New York?” is fraught with uncertainty and ambiguity. Some online gambling is licensed by the state of New York. The state has very specific rules these licensed gambling operations must follow.

On the other hand, many offshore casinos operate on the internet, and are licensed by other countries. The short answer: most gambling—slots, bingo, horse racing, sports betting—is legal in New York.

New York Gambling Snapshot:

• Online Casinos: Available offshore
• Land-based Casinos: Available, commercial and tribal
• Online Sportsbooks: Available, in-state and offshore
• Land-based Sportsbooks: Available
• Poker: Available, inside casinos, offshore
• Horse Racing: Available, in-state and offshore
• Lottery: Available, in-state and offshore
• Gambling Age: 21

Virtually all forms of gambling are permitted, licensed, and regulated in the Empire State. Tribal casinos, VLT racinos, horse racing, poker rooms, sportsbooks—they all exist in New York. The state-run lottery generates billions a year in revenue. Four commercial casinos dot the state, along with 16 tribal gambling operations—including eight class III casinos, four class II casinos, and four retailers with slot rooms inside. 

But New York wasn’t always so amenable to gambling. For many years, the state banned all forms of gambling, but eventually permitted pari-mutuel wagering at horse races(1) in 1939 and established a state-run lottery(2) in the mid-60s.

Early in the 1990s, the state compacted with five Indian tribes(3) to build tribal casinos, but it wasn’t until the internet moved from hobbyist-nerd status to send-mom-a-birthday-email level of acceptance that New York state began to take online activity seriously.

In 2013, New York legalized commercial casinos(4); sportsbooks weren’t permitted in New York until 2019. In 2021, the state allowed for online sports wagering, and a number of internet sportsbooks are starting operations(5) in-state.

The one exception to New York’s acceptance of gambling is the poker room. While brick & mortar poker rooms have been permitted in New York casinos since casinos were legalized, the state has ignored their existence since the US District Court overturned a poker room operator’s conviction(6) for running “a game of chance,” declaring poker to be more a game of skill than chance.

While many forms of online gambling are permitted in New York, the state likes to wet its beak with application fees, annual license fees, and corporate taxation. Unfortunately, offshore online casinos and sportsbooks are licensed in other countries and are cannot be required to pay fees or taxes to New York.

For its own part, the state of New York seems more interested in pursuing errant operators of gambling enterprises(7) physically situated in New York rather than in prosecuting their individual patrons. Although seven men in Rochester were arrested in 2023 for operating a poker room and an online sportsbook(8), to date, no New Yorker has been arrested or charged with placing an illegal wager on the internet, ever.

So, is gambling online legal or not in New York? The answer is “Yes.” Of course, we’re not lawyers here at GS, so if you’re concerned about the legalities and risks involved with gambling on the internet, be sure to consult your attorney. With the Empire State’s rapidly changing attitudes about gambling, you might get some surprising advice.

Land-Based Gambling Options in New York

For a state that has lagged behind many others as far as in-state gambling is concerned, New York has certainly moved into the big leagues, with four commercial casinos and four tribal casinos scattered about the state, world-class horse racing tracks—and that’s not to mention a state lottery that distributed more than $3.6 billion in fiscal year 2022-2023(8) alone to K-through 12 schools.

Incidentally, the Five Boroughs accounted for nearly half of that 3.6 billion.

Commercial Casinos

Tribal Casinos

Horse Racing

Poker Rooms

Sportsbooks

Lottery

With more than 15,000 licensed retailers, New York state can boast of having a lottery ticket for sale within a three-mile walk of virtually anywhere in the state. The NY lottery also provides official apps for both Android and Apple devices, but the apps only allow scanning of already-purchased lottery tickets—the apps do not provide for purchasing ticket online.

Bingo

New York Gambling History

Future of Gambling in New York

If the past decade has proven anything, it is that the gambling laws in New York are in a state of flux. Gambling options that were illegal as recently as 1990 are now licensed by the state and enjoyable everywhere within its borders.

The state authorized up to seven commercial casinos in 2013, but at the time of this writing, only four have been built and are in operation. That means that New Yorkers can expect three new opportunities to enjoy brick & mortar casino gambling in the coming years.

Online poker rooms are permitted across the river in New Jersey, and some New Yorkers simply drive across a bridge to enjoy these—something that will no doubt bring pressure on New York legislators to find a way to accommodate online poker rooms.

Gambling Responsibly

A survey conducted by the New York State Office of Addiction Services and Supports reveals that about 27% of adult New Yorkers are recreational gamblers well within responsible gambling perimeters.

The study further noted that while 3.8% of the adult population are at-risk for problem gambling, less than 1% could actually be defined as “problem gamblers” or “pathological gamblers.”

While that survey indicates fewer than 150,000 New Yorkers are in the “problem” or “pathological” categories, it still suggests that more than half a million adults in the Empire State are at-risk. The state and various charitable organizations have established resources for those gamblers in need of information, assistance, or treatment:

• New York Council on Problem Gambling
• Responsible Gaming Program, New York State Gaming Commission
• Gamblers Anonymous: List of New York Meetings
• National Council on Problem Gambling

Legal Sources

1. Pari-mutuel wagering legalized, NY Senate site
2. Trends in New York State Lottery Revenues and Gaming Expansions, Office of New York State Comptroller
3. “Cuomo Signs compact with Indians”, New York Times
4. Commercial Casinos legalized, New York Times
5. Gov. Cuomo signs Mobile Betting Legislation, Sports Illustrated
6. Guilty verdict overturned against poker room operator, New York Times
7. Gambling Offenses, New York Penal Code
8. Poker room & online sportsbook operators arrested, New York Times
9. State permits VLTs, New York State Gaming Commission
10. “Simulcasting begins; Opens locally today”, The Post-Star
11. OTB parimutuel betting, NY Senate site
12. Approval of 1846 NY Constitution, Balletpedia

Start Gambling Online in New York

Online casinos for New York players can be found across the internet, and this guide showed you the best gambling sites in multiple categories. Looking for the #1 option? That’s none other than BetUS, which offers a solid 125% up to $2,500 welcome bonus, in addition to a revered sportsbook and a loaded casino with 300+ games.

There’s more to work with if you want to gamble online in New York; it just depends what you’re looking for. Gamblers on the hunt for the best live dealer gambling site will want to head to BetOnline, while SlotsandCasino offers the best online casino, and SportsBetting.ag grades out as the state’s top online poker site.

This guide vetted viable options if you’re looking for live dealer or bonus-centric sites, while also nudging you to the best land-based gambling options in NY. New York’s gambling laws are ambiguous, but there is no shortage of opportunity, whether you’re gambling in person or online. To do the latter, just choose the best offshore New York online casinos and sportsbooks, starting with BetUS.

J.W.

Paine

Content Specialist

Articles

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J.W. Paine is one of the most experienced writers at GamblingSites.com. He’s written for television and the printed media, and is a published novelist (as Tom Elliott).

Paine loves writing about Las Vegas nearly as much he loves living here. An experienced gambler, he’s especially familiar with thoroughbred horseracing, poker, blackjack, and slots.

See All J.W.’s Articles

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