Choices must be OK’d by gaming commission
New York Gaming Commission Executive Director Robert Williams says the panel choosing the locations of new commercial casinos in the state is likely to announce its decision the week before Christmas.
“The Gaming Facility Location Board has met on three occasions to discuss the financial and employment histories of the applicants,” Williams said. “I understand that they have tentatively scheduled December 17 in Albany for their final meeting.”
Sixteen business teams are vying for what could be up to four licenses in three upstate zones: the Capital Region, Hudson Valley/ Catskills and the eastern Southern Tier, reported the Albany Times-Union. With its proximity to New York City, the Catskills/Hudson Valley region attracted the most competition. Nine developers are vying for a license there, including six in Orange County, which is closest to the New York metropolitan area. Four contenders are in the Capital Region near Albany, and three in the Southern Tier-Finger Lakes area.
After the panel announces its decision, background checks and environmental reviews must be completed before the licenses can be awarded by gaming commissioners, reported the Poughkeepsie Journal.
“Obviously there are going to be some unhappy people,” said Jeff Gural, owner of the Tioga Downs harness track and racino, one of three applicants in the Southern Tier. “I just hope I’m not one of them.”
“Sometimes silence is golden,” Michael Smith, part of a team pitching a casino at the former Nevele Resort in the Catskills, told the Journal. “But sometimes it’s deafening. The sooner we know, the sooner we can get to work.”
Any decisions are expected to face challenges by anti-casino and environmental organizations. A group of Tuxedo residents recently lost its campaign to stop a billion-dollar Genting casino from coming to an area near Sterling Forest State Park, reported the Hudson Valley Times Herald-Record.
“I think there’s a lot of money involved,” said casino opponent Mary Hanson, a member of the group. “And in New York money talks.” If Genting is one of the winning bidders, the group has vowed to file a lawsuit to keep the Malaysian company from building the casino.
Opponents in other areas are just as committed. Cara Benson of Save East Greenbush told the Times-Union, “We are not going away. We live here. I think it’s obvious to everyone that we are resolute.”
