Brian O’Dwyer doesn’t mince words about where New York’s gambling regulation stands. As chair of the New York State Gaming Commission, he oversees a sprawling portfolio that touches nearly every form of legal wagering in the state, from horse racing at Belmont Park to the 14,000-lottery-retailer network stretching across all five boroughs and well beyond.
And right now, he wants to talk about the illegal market.
“Offshore gambling operators and prediction market operators are beyond our jurisdiction and do not have the players’ best interests in mind,” O’Dwyer said in a recent interview. No safeguards. No age limits. Some of the wagers on offer, he said, are “absolutely reprehensible.” The federal government, he added, hasn’t shown any interest in fixing it. That’s a problem that hits New York particularly hard, given the sheer size of the city’s sports betting population and the density of potential underage users concentrated in neighborhoods from Flatbush to Flushing.
The Commission’s authority, broad as it is, stops at the state line.
Still, O’Dwyer’s outlook isn’t grim. Three new commercial casinos are coming online in New York City, a development years in the making that promises both jobs and a significant new revenue stream. Belmont Park’s redevelopment is nearly finished, and O’Dwyer says it will “usher in a new era of thoroughbred racing.” For anyone who grew up going out to the track on a summer Saturday, that’s not a small thing.
Mobile sports wagering continues to beat revenue projections, which matters directly to New Yorkers. Under New York State’s gaming framework, a substantial cut of that money flows to public schools and local governments. O’Dwyer cited Governor Hochul’s policies alongside legislative action as the driving force behind what he called “billions upon billions of dollars in revenue” supporting education and charitable organizations statewide. That’s real money hitting real classrooms, including the ones in Brooklyn and Queens that have watched state aid fluctuate for years depending on what Albany decides to prioritize.
The tech dimension is worth paying attention to. The Commission’s racing division uses technology specifically to monitor equine health and safety, a concern that became more urgent after a string of horse deaths at tracks across the country drew national scrutiny. The gaming division is actively looking at tools to protect what O’Dwyer calls “vulnerable populations.” Most notably, he flagged Governor Hochul’s directive for the Commission to deploy biometrics to curtail underage and problem gambling. That’s not a pilot program somewhere else. That’s the direction New York is heading. Biometric screening at casino entrances or on mobile apps could represent the most significant shift in how the state manages gambling harm since online betting launched.
The lottery operation alone illustrates the scale of what O’Dwyer manages. Fourteen thousand retailers, multiple daily drawings, layered promotional structures, all requiring constant technology updates and oversight. For corner bodegas in Sunset Park or delis in Astoria that sell scratch-offs alongside coffee, the Commission’s decisions about lottery modernization have direct operational consequences.
As Brooklyn Paper reported, O’Dwyer was notably precise about one thing: he doesn’t consider himself part of the gaming industry. When asked what drew him to the business, he pushed back directly. “I have not joined the industry by virtue of the Governor’s appointment,” he said. “I regulate the industry.” It’s a distinction that sounds semantic until you think about what it actually means for enforcement credibility. A regulator who sees himself as a member of the club he’s supposed to police is a compromised one.
The New York State Gaming Commission oversees Class III Indian Gaming compacts, the state lottery, commercial casinos, sports wagering, interactive fantasy sports, and charitable gaming. It’s one of the more complex regulatory bodies in state government, and the pressures on it are growing rather than shrinking.
The prediction markets question isn’t going away either. These platforms, which allow users to bet on real-world events ranging from elections to weather outcomes, have expanded aggressively and operate in a legal gray zone that state regulators can’t touch without federal cooperation. O’Dwyer’s frustration with Washington’s inaction on this front was clear. For New York, a state that built a carefully regulated sports betting market from scratch, watching offshore and prediction platforms vacuum up users with zero consumer protections is more than an abstraction. It’s market erosion and a public health concern wrapped together.
What happens with the new city casinos, the Belmont redevelopment, and the biometrics push will define the next chapter of gaming in New York. O’Dwyer is at the center of all three.