A public meeting at the Uniondale Marriott on New York’s Long Island gave voice to both supporters and opponents of the proposed Las Vegas Sands integrated casino resort at the site of the Nassau Coliseum, former home of the NHL’s New York Islanders.
The meeting featured two separate environmental review hearings held by the town of Hempstead in response to a lawsuit filed by nearby Hofstra University challenging the 99-year lease Nassau County granted to Las Vegas Sands on the project site. A judge in that case held that the county should have done environmental impact studies before granting the lease.
The meeting drew more than 300 Nassau County residents and potential stakeholders of the casino, who packed a ballroom at the hotel to debate the proposed $4 billion resort. Speakers represented both supporters and a variety of opponents of the casino plan.
At the head of the supporters are trade unions that would build the project. Johnny Martincic from local Steamfitters 638 predicted the project will land one of three New York downstate casino licenses.
“We will be victorious, this casino will be built and it will be built with union,” Martincic said, according to CBS News.
Opponents of the project were many, and vocal, at the meeting.
“Casinos are places that lift people up and shake them until all the money falls out,” said George Krug of the resident group Say No to Casino, according to the CBS report.
“We always worry about problem gambling and the use of alcohol and drugs in any casino,” said Jeffrey Reynolds, with the Family and Children’s Association.
“Crime, poverty, addiction,” Garden City Mayor Mary Carter Flanagan, describing the reason her city is opposed to a casino, said to the cheers of casino opponents in the crowd.
Other opponents of the plan cited environmental concerns and potential traffic gridlock.
The project’s controversy intensified last week when Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman publicly suggested that Hofstra, while battling the Long Island project, is supporting a competing casino proposal in Queens, the Hard Rock Citi Field project proposed by New York Mets owner Steven Cohen. Hofstra officials have vehemently denied the allegation.
Regardless of the outcome of the environmental hearings, competition for the casino license is formidable. Many believe the outcome will be limited to a single license for a New York City project, amid speculation the other two will go to the existing racinos.
Not everyone believes that licenses will automatically go to Genting’s Resort World New York in Queens and Empire City Casino in Yonkers, but even if they don’t, there are currently 11 proposed casino projects across the five boroughs of New York.
