Decision expected December 17
New Yorkers are anxiously awaiting a decision by the state’s casino siting panel about which communities will host up to four new Class III casinos. The host communities are expected to reap substantial benefits from the presence of casinos?new construction jobs, thousands of new permanent jobs, and plenty of new tax revenues.
But none of it will happen overnight. The Gaming Facility Location Board is expected to announce its decision on December 17. But its recommendations are only that: recommendations that must be approved by the state Gaming Commission.
The second phase of evaluation will include extensive background suitability checks on the winners, reports the Hudson Valley Times-Herald Record. And that could take months, even though the siting board has looked at thousands of pages of documents and met three times “to discuss the financial and employment histories” of the applicants, including Caesars Entertainment, Genting, Hard Rock and Mohegan Sun.
“You can’t put a shovel in the ground until you’re given a license, because you won’t be able to get financing,” said Mohegan Sun CEO Mitchell Grossinger Etess, who is pushing to build the Mohegan Sun at the Concord, a former Borscht Belt hotel in the Catskills.
Environmental reviews must also be completed before a casino is developed. And in some of the proposed host communities, opponents have vowed to take operators to court to keep gaming out of their backyards.
Among the most vocal critics are those fighting Genting’s proposed Sterling Forest Resort and Casino in Sterling Forest State Park, Orange County. According to the Sloatsburg Village News, a veritable army of opponents have joined together to keep the private parcel from being developed; they include the Palisades Interstate Parks Commission, the Sterling Forest Partnership, the Sierra Club North Jersey, the Friends of Sterling Forest and the Appalachian Mountain Club, among others. One of the groups, the Rockland County Water Coalition says the billion-dollar casino would negatively affects watersheds and drinking water both in New York and New Jersey.
Former Governor George Pataki, who previously supported up to five tribal gaming halls in upstate New York, is also against the Genting development. “In spite of a vigorous public relations effort to portray the project as environmentally benign, (or, incredibly, as environmentally beneficial!), I have grave concerns that this project and its projected 7 million visitors would wreak havoc on Sterling Forest,” he said in a statement reported by Gannett.
The wealthy Harriman family also has come out against the casino, which would be located near land the family donated to the state in the interest of preserving it.
Originally, four casinos were expected to be approved, with three more to follow in seven years. With recent expansion of the gaming market in the northeastern U.S., some analysts think that may not happen. Even so, Atlantic City gaming expert Israel Posner told the Utica Observer-Dispatch that New York remains a viable market.
“Just because everyone already has a cellphone doesn’t mean Apple is going to stop putting out new models with more attractive features,” said Posner. “The sites that are being looked at in New York are aimed at the New York City and northern New Jersey markets, which are densely populated and have large discretionary incomes. They are being built to attract new customers.”
He acknowledged that new casinos “will steal market share from less attractive options and (make) weaker players in a competitive marketplace disappear.”
Incidentally, if Mohegan Sun’s New York project is approved, Etess has announced he will give up his role as CEO at the tribal gaming authority to focus solely on the Concord. Etess is a member of the famous Grossinger family, which owned a hotel of the same name for years in the town of Liberty.
“I am fortunate that scaling back my day-to-day responsibilities with the MTGA will afford me the opportunity to oversee more closely this project, which remains near and dear to my heart,” Etess said in a letter to the siting board. “Essentially, once (a new president) comes on board, I will be providing overall strategic guidance to the MTGA and be solely focused on the Concord, should you be kind enough to award us the license for the Catskills region.”
