It’s Time to Pay Up
New York is America’s heavyweight champion of sports betting. In 2025 alone, bettors have already thrown down more than $16 billion, almost double the next-closest state. Add in three new land-based casinos on the way and Senator Joe Addabbo’s push to legalize online casinos, and you’ve got a gaming boom unlike anything else in the country.
But here’s the catch: the bigger the boom, the bigger the fallout. And Addabbo says it’s time insurance companies step up and cover the mess.
If Insurance Pays for Rehab, Why Not Gambling Treatment?
This summer, Addabbo introduced Senate Bill S8352. In plain English: if insurance covers treatment for alcohol or opioid addiction, it should cover gambling addiction too.
Right now, Medicaid pays for some gambling-only services in special state programs, but private insurance doesn’t unless you’ve also got a substance use disorder attached. Addabbo thinks that’s backward:
“A New Yorker who has a severe addiction in gaming can’t pay for the treatment or therapy — they have to pay rent, mortgage, food, everything else,” Addabbo told SBC Americas.
His point is simple: gambling addiction ruins lives just like drugs or alcohol. Why should insurance treat it differently?
Why This Hits Sweeps Casinos Hard
Here’s where things get spicy. Sweepstakes casinos love to say they’re “not gambling.” But if New York law says gambling addiction treatment must be covered, then any harm caused by sweeps casinos looks a lot like… gambling harm.
That could mean:
- More pressure on sweeps to fund treatment programs.
- Stricter standards on KYC, spend limits, and redemption transparency.
- Fewer excuses to claim they’re just “social entertainment.”
Addabbo’s insurance mandate doesn’t name sweeps directly, but the ripple effect could be brutal.
The Politics Behind It
Addabbo’s plate is overflowing, and every item is controversial. Right now, he’s fighting 3 battles at once:
- Ban sweepstakes casinos: His S5935 bill already passed through the legislature successfully and is sitting on Gov. Hochul’s desk, waiting for her pen.
- Legalize iGaming: His white whale. He’s tried for years, and it keeps slipping away, but he isn’t letting go.
- Expand problem gambling coverage: The new front line. If gaming keeps expanding, he says protections need to expand with it.
Insurers, of course, hate mandates, they don’t want Albany telling them what to do.
But Addabbo’s not backing down. He’s already said this insurance bill will be a priority in 2026, framing it as part of a bigger bargain: if New York keeps betting big, it has to bet on protecting its people too.
Not Just New York
Other states are testing the waters. In Illinois, lawmakers tried to fold gambling addiction into the state’s Substance Use Disorder Act. The bill made it through the Senate but died in the House before the finish line.
The signal is clear: gambling addiction coverage is starting to creep into insurance debates across the country. As more states expand sports betting and iGaming, the question keeps popping up – if insurance pays for rehab, why not gambling treatment too?
The Big Questions
- Will insurance companies fight this harder than the casinos themselves?
- Could sweeps operators get dragged into funding treatment programs if gambling is officially treated like a health disorder?
- And the big one: if gambling addiction gets the same insurance footing as alcohol or opioids, does that finally blow up the sweeps industry’s favorite line — “we’re not really gambling”?
Bottom line: New York may soon treat gambling addiction as a public health issue, not just a personal problem. And for sweeps casinos, that’s more than bad PR, it’s another nail in the coffin of the “just social gaming” defense.
Blaise Luis
