The push to bring full-scale casinos to New York City is intensifying as lawmakers wrestling with a massive state budget deficit find there are plenty of campaign dollars around to help ease their concerns.
The 2013 law that brought seven prospective commercial casinos to the state anticipated three licenses for the Big Apple but imposed a 10-year moratorium on awarding them in order to give their four upstate competitors time to establish themselves.
That’s a problem for deep-pocketed operators like Genting Group and Las Vegas Sands, which are lobbying to have the city opened up prior to 2023, despite the fact that the upstate operations are struggling financially in a statewide market crowded with gambling options, seven full-scale tribally owned casinos among them.
The $6.1 billion state budget deficit lawmakers are facing for the upcoming fiscal year isn’t hurting their case, considering that each of the operators eventually selected for the city would be required to ante up $500 million for their licenses.
Neither are the campaign contributions flowing to mainstream politicians fearful of election year challengers looking to build on the success of insurgents like U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and state Senator Julia Salazar in ousting incumbents from seats in the city’s boroughs that once were deemed safe.
Like Queens Assemblywoman Aravella Simotas, who is opposed in June’s Democratic primary by a challenger backed by the Democratic Socialists of America, the party that helped Ocasio-Cortez and Salazar win in 2018.
Simotas has discovered she shares similar views on the moratorium issue with Genting, which wants to convert its giant Resorts World New York City racino at Queens’ Aqueduct Racetrack to a full-scale casino. Genting has founded a political action committee to contribute to her campaign and those of several others, among them Brooklyn Assemblyman Joe Lentol, chairman of the Democratic Assembly Campaign Committee, who has a primary opponent for the first time in a decade, and Queens Senator Michael Gianaris, who faces an insurgent as well.
“New York City is facing a significant budget deficit, and tax revenues from gaming will be used to ensure that our schools are not underfunded,” Simotas said.
The PAC also has donated to Governor Andrew Cuomo, whose campaign has received $50,000.
Genting is also paying Patrick Jenkins, a former college roommate of Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie, $30,000 a month to advocate on its behalf.
“As the largest taxpayer in New York state, Genting, like many others in the gaming and hospitality industries, is an active participant in the policy debate,” a spokesman for the Malaysia-based resort conglomerate said.
Sands has employed the services of former Gov. David Paterson to lobby on its behalf.
MGM Resorts International, which wants live tables at its Empire City racino in Yonkers, also has representation in Albany.
As Kathryn Wylde, CEO of the Partnership for New York City, which represents many of the city’s largest businesses, put it, the state’s budget woes make a compelling case for issuing the licenses sooner rather than later.
“If (casinos) are making a substantial contribution in terms of taxes and jobs to the state, it’s hard to turn down.”
