MGM Resorts International and Las Vegas Sands have set up shop in Albany as part of a drive that includes local government officials eager to bring full-scale casinos to New York City.
MGM, which has invested heavily in the prospect, spending $850 million last year to buy Yonkers’ Empire City racino and Yonkers Raceway, is reported to be leading the effort, which is aimed at impressing on state government the wisdom of lifting a moratorium until 2023 on any commercial casino expansion in New York beyond the four properties already operating upstate in Schenectady, the Catskills, the Finger Lakes and the Southern Tier.
“We’re just kind of educating people on the vision we have for the property,” Empire CEO Uri Clinton told USA Today.
“The reality of it is we think there is a real opportunity to allow us to start moving forward. So we’ve been talking to community groups, we’ve been engaging with the City Council, we’ve been engaging with local taxpayers associations and local stakeholders who are representing those constituencies here in Albany.”
Empire City houses the statutory maximum of 5,200 slot-machine-like video lottery terminals and electronic table games, but MGM wants to do much more—possibly build a hotel, a convention center and other attractions—if the state allows it expand just 15 miles from Times Square with Las Vegas-style with house-banked slot machines and live table games.
The company, along with other big-name operators, including LVS and Genting, which owns the massive Resorts World New York City racino at Aqueduct Racetrack in Queens, are promising to pay fees reportedly in the realm of $500 million each for casino licenses.
Last week, MGM and Resorts World issued a joint statement that said:
“The New York City gaming market is a tremendous opportunity to generate hundreds of millions of dollars of incremental tax revenue that could be used to support local schools and revitalize (downstate’s Metropolitan Transportation Authority). Additionally, it would allow New York an opportunity to capture tax dollars that are currently flowing out of state.”
“Yonkers we know will succeed,” said Mayor Mike Spano, signed a resolution by the City Council last week in support of Empire City’s effort. “It’s positioning in the metropolitan area is key. We know that the casino would do very well.”
“We’re going to continue to really lead the charge to hopefully get the governor and the Legislature to understand that you need to open up the compact,” said John Ravitz, vice president of the Business Council of Westchester.
State Senator Shelley Mayer, who represents the Yonkers district that includes Empire City, said she supports the push.
“I’ve always been supportive of full gaming for Yonkers. It’s a source of jobs; it’s a source of revenue.”
Empire City, with a staff of 1,200, is the city’s largest private employer.
Conversely, Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins, who also represents Yonkers, has sounded a more cautious note, saying she’s looking for greater clarity about what the downstate casino suitors are seeking and how they would impact the existing casinos.
“There are four casinos we know that believed that they had exclusive rights. It was supposed to be a seven-year period, so I guess there is a lot of moving parts. Certainly, I’ve heard that they are trying to advance the conversation, but I haven’t heard how far they really are in making sure all the pieces fit.”
Those moving parts are likely to involve an endorsement from the upstate casinos and a refund of a significant portion of their license fees, and as Governor Andrew Cuomo’s budget director Robert Mujica put it last week, the cash-strapped state doesn’t “have the resources to open up gaming downstate.”
“If you accelerate it, you would have to pay the current casinos close to $300 million. So you’re going to have to pay them first in order to do it.”
Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie, whose district is in the Bronx, also has expressed reservations.
“Expansion of gambling for the Assembly majority is, I’d say, not one that people would be excited about. The casinos downstate is a very concerning issue for members, particularly in the city of New York. We’re just, not big fans of gambling.”
Cuomo, likewise, is leery. “I know it’s a topic of conversation, but I have no opinion or intention of making any changes at this time,” he said, although he did acknowledge it as “an evolving field, there’s no doubt about that.”
