The New York Gaming Commission still has not ruled on final licenses for four proposed casino gaming operations in rural New York, and that has local officials concerned.
“For the sake of the economy and people looking for jobs in this county, we would like the state to move on it,” Thompson Town Supervisor William Rieber told the New York Daily News.
Thompson is where the proposed Montreign Casino Resort would be built, but the project is stalled while awaiting final regulatory approval from the state Gaming Commission. That means developers can’t obtain loans and other funding, until potential lenders know the state will allow the casino and three others proposed in Seneca County, Schenectady, and Binghamton.
In Schenectady, the developers of the proposed casino there say they are “ready to break ground upon licensure by the New York State Gaming Commission, while Empire Resorts, which is undertaking the Montreign development, said it has invested a significant amount of money to get the casino ready but can’t go further without regulatory approval and financial backing.
New York gaming regulators are working on the matter, which received preliminary approval from a site committee but now await results of background checks of the owners of the proposed casinos and financial details of each project, Gaming Commission spokesman Lee Park said.
State gaming regulators have said they might render a decision by the end of the year. New York gaming law gives casino developers two years to begin operations after the date the state issues them a gaming license.
New York voters in 2013 amended the state’s Constitution to enable construction and operations of up to seven Las Vegas-style casino operations in order to boost local economies in the state’s more rural areas.
Three casino projects won initial approval in Upstate New York, while a fourth was added in the Southern Tier this past summer, and all four projects now await the Gaming Commission’s final approval.
State gaming regulators are slated to meet this month, and many anticipate final decisions on the four gaming operations.
The proposed casinos face opposition from tribes that have current gaming operations in place, lawmakers who say the new casinos won’t generate new economic activity and, instead, only will take business from existing gaming casinos, and community members who say casinos will have a negative effect on rural communities.
One of the tribes opposing the new casinos, the Oneida Nation, announced it is adding 30 new jobs at its Yellow Brick Road Casino in Chittenango. The full- and part-time jobs are for the new blackjack, craps, and other table games offered at the casino, plus management and other positions.
The Yellow Brick Road Casino currently has 430 slot machines, but is expanding.
