Saturday, January 30, saw thousands of people show up for two rallies aimed at a proposed gaming casino at Belmont Park, with one group supporting the plan and the other opposed.
About 2,000 people marched in opposition of the plan, which would place 1,000 video lottery terminals along the western grandstand at Belmont Park in Elmont, New York. The march started in Floral Park and ended in Elmont, and was the second rally opposing the casino plan to take place in the past month.
Opposing the casino, Floral Park Mayor Thomas Tweedy called the plan “unimaginative,” and local residents voiced concerns over potential increases in crime and traffic and decreases in local home values.
Supporters also rallied at Belmont Park that day, saying the casino project would create jobs and improve the local economy, while also helping to fund community improvements. Others simply support it as giving local residents a place to go and something to do.
The Nassau Regional Off-Track Betting Corporation wants to build a 100,000-square-foot gaming facility to house the video lottery terminals and anticipate it would generate about $100 million in annual revenues and $20 million in local tax revenues.
In Schenectady, work on the Rivers Casino & Resort has progressed much more quickly than anticipated, largely thanks to a mild winter.
The $480 million project includes a 150,000-square-foot-casino and is planned to open by June 2017, but the mild winter enabled an early groundbreaking this winter, and with Spring only two months away and mild weather already here, preparation work has accelerated.
With the quickened pace, casino officials expect the casino to open sooner, possibly during the first quarter of 2017.
Meanwhile, New York Supreme Court JusticeW. Patrick Falvey in January dismissed a challenge on environmental grounds to the proposed construction of the Lago Resort & Casino in Tyre.
Citizen’s opposition group Casino-Free Tyre sought an injunction against the casino’s construction based on environmental grounds and claimed local officials improperly approved the site’s environmental review.
Justive Falvey found the review had been done properly and dismissed the complaint.
“The Tyre Town Board was extremely thorough, thoughtful and deliberative in its work, and the Court found that the Town fully complied with State Environmental Quality Review Act procedures,” Lago Resort & Casino Co-Chair Brent Stevens said. “The Board conducted countless hours of public hearings and meetings as it sifted through thousands of pages of documents.”
Casino-Free Tyre said it will appeal the ruling.
“Although we are disappointed with the decision, all of the parties have known that there would be an appeal, regardless of the outcome. We are hopeful that the appellate court will overturn this again, just as it did the last time this case was appealed,” Casino-Free Tyre said in a statement.
Plans call for the construction of a 207-room hotel and casino in Tyre, which would create 1,800 full-time jobs after opening.
