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It’s Super Bowl Sunday in New York. You’re at a bar having some beers with your friends, watching the youngest quarterback matchup ever. You think the Eagles have got this in the bag. In fact, you think they’ll win 33-28 — so you hand the bartender five bucks and enter the establishment’s squares gambling pool, where you’re betting on the final digits of what the score will be.
Suddenly, the door bursts open. The cops are here. They shout “we hear there’s gambling going on in this establishment!” and slap the owner with a massive fine.
A nightmare? Sure. But this scene will be all too real for thousands of New Yorkers this weekend, who are set to be subject to raids from the state’s liquor authority just as bars are honoring the age-old tradition of betting on the premiere sporting event of the year.
The Spectator has learned that New York Governor Kathy Hochul, a Democrat, has deputized her State Liquor Authority to act as the fun police across the state. New York Congressman Andrew Garbarino ripped into Hochul for the plan, telling me that “it’s ridiculous that the Hochul administration is targeting small businesses for something as harmless as football boxes.”
“Bars and restaurants have been using box pools to draw in customers for years, and it’s been largely unenforced,” he added. “So many of these businesses barely survived the Covid pandemic — and now the state has taken away a proven method of attracting customers during the slow winter months.”
The problem predates Hochul by well over a decade. In 2008, the Lockport Union-Sun and Journal reported that “the state’s Alcohol Beverage Control Law prohibits gambling in all establishments with liquor licenses” and that “a felony charge of first-degree promoting gambling can be laid against a person who receives more than five bets in one day totaling more than $5,000.”
Jarett Gandolfo, a New York Republican legislator who succeeded Garbarino in Albany, told me that the system is overdue for a shake-up. “I’m currently working on legislation which would allow bars and restaurants to operate football pools, as long as they are not taking a cut,” he said.
Gandolfo’s task is not an easy one, given the legal obstacles. “It may take an amendment to the state constitution, but it’s the right thing to do. Government should make it easier to own and operate a profitable business, not harder.”
“Now that New York State has legalized sports betting, this administration decided to crack down on your local pub for running football boxes,” Gandolfo said. “It’s hypocritical. The state has brought in nearly $1 billion through the first year of legalized sports betting; football boxes at a bar are clearly no threat to this revenue stream.”
Representative Claudia Tenney, a longtime Hochul critic, says the governor should be more focused on stopping the crime ravaging her state. “Instead of raiding bars that offer patrons the choice to gamble a few dollars on the Super Bowl, Hochul should start addressing real problems like the record crime and outmigration we are suffering from under her watch.”
Bar owners know just how hard this enforcement will hit them.
“The football pools for local small business owners, as long as they’re not taking a cut and are providing enjoyment for their customers, have always been a staple of recreation for local people in local communities with ties to their local pub,” a New York bar owner told me. He asked to be kept anonymous out of fear that the SLA will retaliate against him for speaking out; it’s a well-grounded fear. Bar owners who criticized Hochul’s predecessor, disgraced ex-governor Andrew Cuomo, found their liquor licenses suspended.
There’s a generational gap in how New Yorkers like to bet on sports, according to the bar owner. “I understand the perceived competition with gambling apps, but many people do not wish to partake in these apps as entertainment,” he said. “Especially older people, who are used to just buying a few boxes and having fun watching a game that they would normally have no interest in.”
The irony of Hochul using the SLA as her personal police force to crack down on small business owners is that she’s already in hot water for using the same agency for political patronage. “It seemed that the State Liquor Authority had denied a booze permit [a Hochul donor] sought, and the developer demanded that the decision be reversed,” the New York Post reported.
Hochul’s persecution of New York bartenders, who had already been devastated by coronavirus pandemic policies, is the latest example of Democrats’ nationwide war on football and, some would say, fun.
In addition to their attacks on real-life football, The Spectator has reported that Democrats are waging a war against fantasy football commissioners — and all e-commerce users — by requiring all Americans who record more than $600 of transactions on platforms such as PayPal, Venmo and Etsy to pay additional taxes.
While Americans are poised to spend millions of dollars gambling on the Super Bowl, bar patrons in New York had best be wary before laying down some cash — unless Republicans can step in and save the day.
