Delaware North to invest in Suffolk facility
Nassau and Suffolk counties in New York each plan to open and operate 1,000 new video lottery terminals as part of a recently approved expansion of gaming in the state.
Newsday reported last month that the first slot parlor will likely be located on Long Island. Both of the new locations will include restaurants and bars as well as electronic gaming machines.
In June, lawmakers OK’d a deal allowing the counties to offer VLTs as a way of generating revenues. The presidents of the counties’ Off-Track Betting corporations have since met with state gaming commissioners to talk about possible locations and operators.
Suffolk County, looking at a $180 million budget deficit in 2014, is already counting the $4 million it hopes to realize from the first few months of a new gaming facility.
“This thing is on a very fast track, as fast a track as I can grease,” said Phil Nolan, president of Suffolk OTB, who is working with its partner, Delaware North. The hospitality and gaming company, which is headquartered in Buffalo, has pledged up to $70 million for the project.
Nassau County, which faces a $122 million budget shortfall, hopes to open its slot parlor in 2015. “I want to open as fast as we can, but we want to make sure we do it the right way,” said Nassau OTB president Joseph Cairo. Nassau hopes for about $19 million from slots in the first year.
Supporters of the plan hold up Batavia Downs as an example of the revenues that can be raised by adding VLTs to off-track betting. Run by the Western Regional OTB, Batavia Downs has seen its intake almost double since 2005, when it won the right to add almost 800 slot machines, Newsday reported. In 2012, customers spent $547 million playing slots there, up from $291 million in 2006, of which the OTB cleared $45 million.
