[JFB37]

There is a good post on this in one of the many other NY poker threads. Basically, NY politics is a mess. NYC is not capable of changing the law itself, it would require action from the State Assembly. The Assembly is controlled by upstate politicians who generally hate the city.

Getting this changed would require significant support from the City leaders and Bloomberg has shown little interest in bringing in gambling. Rudy actually had more interest.

Mounting the lobbying effort would be time-consuming and expensive so there is a big free rider problem. Nobody would want to spend the money to get the law changed unless they had some assurance that they would have an advantage over potential competitors if it were passed. In other words, they would ask for some sort of "special permit" system under which they would, by magic, be the only one who would qualify for a permit.

I dearly wish this would happen but I'm not optimistic.