New York Online Casinos 2023
On the internet players can find all their favorite games without the inconvenience of travelling up north state. Legality remains in a state of ambiguity, therefore allowing players to take advantage of playing at offshore based online casinos.
On the other hand, land based gambling is a mixture of two worlds, with brick and mortar casinos available up north state, but prohibited in New York City (because of the absence of native American territory). The New York tribal casinos, are now preparing to offer sports betting as soon as formally allowed by law makers and regulators. However there is an impasse between law makers and tribal casino leaders in regards to extending lawful sports betting to non tribal casino operators.
New York Online Gambling
New York gambling laws remain relatively clear in regards to locality and game selection that can be offered within the state. Therefore, in some aspects (although it’s extremely unclear), it could be implied that gambling online is also prohibited. In an effort to remove uncertainty it was anticipated that in 2019, the legalization of sports betting would have led to mobile and online betting translating to the formal legalization of online casino games. However, this did not eventuate and no changes to online gambling laws occurred.
While unpredictability persists with changing current New York gambling laws, the standing laws fail to clearly articulate that online gambling is illegal.
As a result, New York players can play for real money online. Naturally, due to the high number of players online, there has been no historical charges laid by law enforcement agencies for illegal online gambling. It could be seen that online gambling is akin to crossing the road on a red light when no cars are coming.
Conversely, the gambling laws are applied more strictly to Online Casino operators. As a result, New York Online Casinos are all based offshore.
(As a side note: Online betting for sport is not permitted, and wagers can only be place physically at tribal casinos who have established sports betting terminals and windows. Mobile betting is also not permitted).
For our readers, we have compiled a list of Top New York online casinos to play at. We also created a few points on how to get started and what casinos to avoid.
In summary, our top New York online casinos are displayed below.
New York Offshore Casino Statistics
New York is the 2nd most active state that participates in offshore online gambling at casinos as of 2020 with a gross win amount of $121.70m. New York contributes to 10.4% of all offshore casino activity in the United States for 2020.
Click here to see a breakdown of all offshore gambling activity broken down by state. The following is a breakdown of all offshore casino gambling from New York since 2003.
| Year | 2003 | 2004 | 2005 | 2006 | 2007 | 2008 | 2009 | 2010 | 2011 |
| Gross Win | $92.69m | $110.97m | $139.40m | $168.45m | $106.73m | $100.19m | $102.62m | $103.23m | $94.22m |
| Year | 2012 | 2013 | 2014 | 2015 | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020* |
| Gross Win | $97.97m | $96.19m | $96.26m | $92.92m | $90.62m | $89.86m | $87.97m | $86.56m | $121.70m |
*Note: Data from 2020 are currently based on estimates.
Source – H2 Gambling Capital
Offshore gambling statistics for sports betting from New York can be found here.
Top New York Online Casino Sites
| CASINO | RATING | BONUS | PLAY | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 
Vegas Casino Online | ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
| 400% up to $10,000 Welcome Bonus | PLAY NOW |
| 2 | 
Slots Empire | ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
| 220% up to $1,000 Welcome Bonus | PLAY NOW |
| 3 | 
El Royale Casino | ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
| 250% up to $12,500 Welcome Bonus | PLAY NOW |
| 4 | 
Red Dog Casino | ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
| 225% up to $1,000 Welcome Bonus | PLAY NOW |
| 5 | 
Slots.lv | ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
| 200% up to $1,000 Welcome Bonus | PLAY NOW |
There are over hundreds of online casinos to choose from, and therefore playing at a safe and secure one can be challenging. We have therefore created a list of highly recommended NY online casinos, which are based on several key criteria. In producing this list, we have spent hours upon hours of fun playing at the online casinos, and talking to several avid players about their experience. We then gathered our responses together, and aligned them to a baseline.
We discuss, the key criteria and how they are important in defining a recommended online casino.
Quality Gaming – Game Play, Design and Selection
At the forefront of player minds is the quality of gaming. Without quality gaming a lot of hard ache can be experienced. Game selection, however, does come down to individual preference to a certain degree. There is an obvious difference in game selection needs between a slot player and a casino table player. Beyond this, the overall consensus is that a good game design and play is vitally important. Graphics, layout and seamless and fluid play commonly talked about when reviewing casinos. And it’s the top casinos that partner excellent game ware developers that can deliver on these attributes.
Advanced Features that are Fun and Intuitive
Flowing on from game design, we delve into the subclass of game features. Innovation is driving a lot of changes to game play, with cool and fun features that are being added to gaming all the time. For the old school traditionalists that love to play the classics like blackjack for roulette, new features include Live Dealers, hot and cold trends (plus projections), instant chat messaging and audio connection and a lot more.
Those who are looking into the new generation of gaming will find a myriad of features that challenges the norm. Interactive storylines, games of skill, amazing graphics and audio, just to name a few.
All the top online casinos easily cater for the classics while also offering a wide range of new refreshing games.
Excellent Reputation with Established Gaming Experience
The online gambling industry has been in existence for decades, going through its ups and downs – Changes in regulation, beginning with the common basic card games and now offering Live Dealer experience. Those that been in the industry of a long time is indicative of their honesty and quality. Reputations take time to build but can come crashing down in an instant. We found that those who partner quality game developers, such as RealTime Gaming, Lab Solutions, have the best gaming. And those online casinos who have been around have the best service.
Professional Resolution of Complaints and Addressing Queries
Complaints management is common in any business, and it’s the same for online casinos. Some players are bound to have an issue somewhere down the track, whether it be technical or simply
Online Casinos to Avoid
Currently all New York online casinos are based offshore. This is because the laws remain ambiguous in regards to online play, but could be construed as restrictive for online operators. Therefore, all online casinos are based offshore.
This does not mean that offshore online casinos are not licensed or unregulated. Far from it. The best online casinos are located in territories which require licensing and fulfilment of compliance requirements. They understand that being independently regulated is a testament to their fair play and quality of gaming.
Therefore, avoid any casino that is unlicensed or unregulated. It is easily checked by going to the casino site. If in doubt, simply ask through their query submission and their response can be quickly validated at the regulator’s site.
Benefits of Online Gambling
Through our collation of feedback, we also asked they question of why online gambling was so attractive for players. The most common responses, were to convenience, the direct credit to the bank roll, and the safety.
Convenience
Many players find the convenience of playing online one of the most “game” changing factors (pun intended). The ability to play anytime and anywhere, shone through highly. Surprisingly the delivery of playing on a mobile tablet, phone or desktop did not really play a part or influence convenience. The most delivery was through a download on a desktop or flash play, and players seem content enough when playing via this channel.
Perks are delivered to the bank roll
A notable difference of playing at a land based venue vs online, is the way that perks are provided to players. Land based casinos, as an example, provide discounted meal vouchers, complimentary drinks, and valet parking. Online, on the other hand, comes in the form of extra credits to the bank roll, free spins and additional chances to win prizes and jackpots.
Online players love the fact that the perks come in the form of tangible real money credits or extra playing time, rather than being supplementary.
Safety
With self distancing measures in place, a surge of online gambling has taken place, and of course this has been due to players concerns about safety. There have been a few instances from players where they been assaulted or afraid at land based venues. It isn’t often and it depends on the locality, however, in general physical safety is better online.
New York Gambling Laws
New York players are gambling over $100 million per year online. This ranks New York as the second highest for online wagering, behind California which turns over a whopping $180 million per year.
Is it legal to play at online casinos?
So if there is any doubt of the risk (let alone the legality), the fact that are hundreds of thousands of players from New York playing online each year should dispel any concerns.
Does this mean that it is legal? Agree, that the statistics does not necessarily infer that playing at online casinos is legal. In fact, the current laws imply that online casinos are prohibited, however they remain quite vague. Thus New York Players are accepted by online casinos that are based offshore.
Current State Gambling laws refer to Penal Code §225.00 et seq.; 47A:101 et seq.; RW&B 47A§518, in which games are limited to Native American land and horse racing. In 2018, the Supreme Court overruled a ban by the Federal government, which opened the door for the State to reform gambling laws.
In preparation of change, tribal casinos have begun to partner online software providers, not only for casino games but also for sports betting.
Sports betting changes in law, have been very interesting. Across all States, the Supreme Court had also overturned the PASPA Federal ban which prevented individual states from offering any form of sports betting (with the exception of Nevada and New Jersey). In the past couple of years, various states have legalized sports betting.
Tribal casinos have opened up sports betting terminal, in accordance with the law. However, turnover has been disappointingly low, as a result of offering only physical face to face betting via betting windows or terminals.
Legal Disclaimer:
WagerDex has disclosed the above statements as information only. We do not purport that the information is complete nor correct in entirety. The above statements are not be used as specific legal advice. No attorney and clients relationship exists between WagerDex and readers of this site.
Conclusion
New York Online Casinos can be easily found on the internet, however it is a challenge to pick the right one. Our compiled list of recommended online casinos have followed a set of criteria which has been ranked as the most important by us and our readership. In choosing from our recommended list, players can play with confidence.
The legality of playing online does lean towards being illegal. But it is extremely vague, thus opening the door for New York players to be accepted by offshore online casinos.
FAQ
The New York State laws do not directly address online gambling, although it can be implied that it is illegal. Having said that, ambiguity allows New York residents to play at online casinos with no precedence of law enforcement agencies taking any action.
Players from the state of New York will be disappointed to know trusted gambling sites like Bovada are currently illegal and there is little to indicate this will change in the near future. New Yorkers will have to look elsewhere for safe and legal gambling.
The minimum age to play online commonly aligns with the minimum age that is required at land based venues which is 18 years of age.
