It’s the first day of the 2022 NFL Draft (Thursday, April 28 on ABC, ESPN and NFL Network), and if you’re like me, you woke up this morning and logged onto the sportsbooks to place some wagers on the festivities.
However, if you’re also like me and live in the state of New York, you were disappointed to see a message like the one on DraftKings: “Draft wagering is not permitted.”
What gives?
Sadly, if you are within New York state lines, you will not be able to bet on the draft in 2022, despite sports gambling having been legal for several months now. Why not, you may ask?
“The NFL draft does not fit into the definition of sports wagering as defined by statute,” a spokesperson for the Gaming Commission told WIVB News 4 in Buffalo.
The commission then pointed to a statute in the state’s Racing, Pari-Mutuel Wagering and Breeding Law:
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“Sports wagering” means wagering on sporting events or any portion thereof, or on the individual performance statistics of athletes participating in a sporting event, or combination of sporting events, by any system or method of wagering … provided however that sports wagers shall include, but are not limited to, single-game bets, teaser bets, parlays, over-under bets, money line, pools, in-game wagering, in-play bets, proposition bets, and straight bets.
So, quite simply, New York state doesn’t consider the draft an actual sporting event that athletes compete in, and therefore, it doesn’t fit the qualifications for legal betting. A parallel may be the Academy Awards, which is an event that can be wagered on in some states – but again, not New York.
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Draft betting is legal in several other states, including Colorado, Illinois and neighboring New Jersey. So if those in New York City are itching to enter some bets, they can hop on the PATH train over to Hoboken and wager to their heart’s desire.
Queens Democrat Joseph P. Addabbo Jr. told News 4 that while draft betting is not permitted this year, there is a chance it could be allowed in the near future.
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