By Dan Murphy
Last year, the U.S. Supreme Court legalized sports bettering to any state that chose to do so. The State of New Jersey took the lead and now has become the number-one state for sports betting, climbing ahead of Las Vegas and the State of Nevada, with more than $3 billion – yes, billion – in sports bets placed in New Jersey in little more than one year.
One reason for the $3 billion in sports bets is that New Yorkers are crossing the border and placing their bets at the Meadowlands and Monmouth Race tracks, or in Atlantic City. And with the first week of the National Football League approaching this weekend, the number of bets, and dollars waged, will certainly increase.
Another way New Yorkers can place a sports bet in New Jersey is on their phones. The caveat is that they must be physically in the State of New Jersey to make a bet on their favorite team.
In New York, the current law says that you can bet on sports, but only at four casinos in upstate, including in Monticello, which is the nearest for Westchester residents. New Yorkers cannot bet on any one of the many mobile sports betting apps now available and heavily advertised.
“Jersey is doing fantastically right now,” said Westchester Assemblyman Gary Pretlow. “I know people that work out of Wall Street (who) are jumping on a PATH train and placing their bets… across the platform to Hoboken and going back to Wall Street.”
Pretlow and other Westchester state legislators want sports gambling legalized and permitted in all New York casinos, including Empire MGM Casino in Yonkers. The argument for legalizing all types of sports gambling in New York is similar to the argument for legalizing marijuana – that neighboring states like Massachusetts have legalized pot, and are collecting the revenues from New Yorkers who then turn around and come home.
New Yorkers are doing the same with sports gambling, by heading just over the George Washington Bridge, placing a bet and coming home.
Back to football…
Rising newspapers contributor Jim Vespe gives us his thoughts on football and the “three New York football teams” – or is there really just one NY football team?
Why I’m a Buffalo Bills fan… and You Should Be, Too
By James Vespe
It’s a normal rite of autumn in Westchester County, like the draining of radiators and the dropping of the leaves. The talk will turn to football and someone will ask, “So, Jim, are you a Giants fan or a Jets fan?”
I usually surprise the questioner by responding, “Neither, I root for the Buffalo Bills.”
When it is learned that I didn’t grow up, go to school, work in or have any connections with the Buffalo area, it is presumed I must be a fan of some player from the Bills’ long and storied history. Jack Kemp, who ran for vice president? O.J. Simpson, who ran for 2,000 yards in a single season and is associated in most people’s minds with a white Bronco (and I don’t mean John Elway)?
Jim Kelly? Bruce Smith? Thurman Thomas?
“No, no, no, no and no,” I reply.
And once I’ve been asked: “Steve Tasker, the ultimate special teamer?”
“You’re verbally close,” I said. Not Tasker. But taxes.
Taxes. As in the New York State income taxes that every Buffalo Bills player pays, and no New York Giant or New York Jet pays unless he ignores the advice of every competent tax accountant and lives in New York and not in New Jersey.
A NYS resident who is married and files jointly and earns between $323,200 and $2,155,350 pays NYS income taxes of $20,489, plus 6.85 percent of income over $323,200. At $2,155,350 and above, NYS tax is $145,991, plus 8.82 percent.
If a New York resident is single (or married and filing separately) and earns between $215,400 and $1,077,550, the tax is $13,825, plus 6.85 percent of income over $215,400. At $1,077,550 and above, NYS tax is $72,882, plus 8.82 percent.
Football record books will tell you that Jim Kelly passed for 35,467 yards (over 20 miles!) during his Hall of Fame career. But no record book will tell you how many yards, more likely miles, of the New York State Thruway his tax dollars paid to repave, or how many state troopers’ salaries or medical benefits his taxes paid for.
Eli Manning of the New York Giants is a tremendous quarterback, a two-time Super Bowl champion, a future Hall of Famer, and seems like a very nice guy. But unless his parents or big brother Peyton are visiting and Eli wants to buy them a meal worthy of New Orleans, he probably rarely ventures into New York City. Which means in addition to not paying New York income taxes, he rarely contributes to the New York economy.
Eli may create thrilling moments for New York police officers, firefighters, and teachers, but he doesn’t help pay their salaries.
This is why I’m a Bills fan and why I’ll be rooting for them to go all the way… Do you realize how much NYS income tax Super Bowl winners would pay?
