New York ends Palm Sunday betting ban

The New York legislature on Tuesday passed a bill that will allow New York racetracks to run live race cards and accept wagers on Palm Sunday, ending a decades-long prohibition.

The legislation removed Palm Sunday from a list of three days on which racing and parimutuel betting is prohibited in New York, leaving Christmas and Easter as the two remaining dates. The sponsor of the Assembly version of the bill was Rep. Gary Pretlow, the longtime head of the chamber’s Racing, Gaming, and Wagering Committee. The Senate version was sponsored by Sen. Micheal Ranzenhofer, a member of the Senate’s own racing and wagering committee.

Horseplayers in New York have long considered the Palm Sunday ban absurd. The prohibition began to look even more peculiar when casinos in the state began opening in the early 2000s but were not forced to close on the same date – including the Resorts World Casino adjacent to Aqueduct.

The prohibition has also prompted some New York horseplayers to open accounts with out-of-state betting operations because the ban applied to in-state account-wagering operations, such as NYRA Rewards.