Law: Do it right, not fast
The New York Gaming Facility Location Board is gearing up to award four new Class III gaming licenses, probably some time in October. But committee head Kevin Law is now hinting the contest could stretch into November.
There’s a lot to consider. The biggest ongoing debate swirls around the possibility that a Class III license could be awarded in Orange County, less than an hour from New York City. Competing developers and some members of the state’s racing and wagering committees say a casino there would not serve Governor Andrew Cuomo’s stated goal of revitalizing the upstate region. An Orange County casino, they say, may in fact defeat the purpose of the referendum that won voter approval last November.
Assemblyman Gary Pretlow and Senator John Bonacic contend that a casino close to New York City would especially hurt the Catskills, which they argue is in more need of an economic shot in the arm.
“I never expected the explosion in Orange County of everybody wanting to be there,” said Bonacic. “I can understand it, but I never expected it.”
While Orange County is part of the Hudson Valley region, critics say it is not in need of development, and any casino there will discourage New York City gamblers from traveling further upstate to play. “People aren’t going to drive 45 miles past a casino to go to another casino,” said Pretlow. “If we wanted to just make money, I can guarantee you if we put a casino in 42nd Street and 7th Avenue in New York City, and it would be the most lucrative casino in the entire world. But it would put everyone else out of business, okay?”
GGR Asia reports that Genting Malaysia’s bids for two licenses in Orange County are “the most aggressive and in many ways superior to that of the competition.”
Genting already runs Resorts World New York City in Queens borough, which opened in 2011 and has since shattered records for VLT revenues in the U.S. The firm has submitted bids for one license in Tuxedo and another in Montgomery. The firm spent a total of $2.48 million lobbying for the licenses between 2012 and 2013, according to a report by the New York Public Interest Research Group.
Another major player is Caesars Entertainment, which has applied to build Caesars New York in Woodbury, also in Orange County. The Cordish Companies and Penn National Gaming also have plans for a Live! Casino resort in Orange County.
“Any consideration of a casino in Orange County will cut us off at the knees,” Thompson Supervisor Bill Reiber said. Mohegan Sun CEO Mitchell Etess, who wants to build a $550 million casino at the old Concord Hotel site, said an Orange County casino would “suck away the core market.”
And Angel Brunner, CEO of the company that wants to develop a casino at another historic resort, the Nevele, told the New York Daily News, “If I’m coming from the New York metropolitan area and I can go the same place I go to shop at Woodbury Common to gamble, then I don’t see why I’d make the drive north.”
But Newburgh Mayor Judy L. Kennedy hopes the site committee will look past such arguments and realize Orange County also could benefit from new industry. A casino in her town “will provide 2,800 jobs for people who desperately need work,” she said, “and change the destiny of the valley. If we can pull this city out of the hole, we can pull up the whole mid-Hudson region.
“It’s been 50 years of downhill,” Kennedy said of the community. “We are in as desperate shape as Sullivan County ever dared to be.”
And it would be hard to deny that a casino close to New York City, with its 8.4 million residents and 50 million annual tourists, is likely to be the most successful, the New York Times reported.
“We can’t make a decision in a vacuum,” Law said. “We need to take into consideration what’s happening in other states.”
The Orange County contenders are:
• Caesars New York (Caesars Entertainment Corp.), Village of Woodbury
• The Grand Hudson Resort & Casino (Greenetrack, Inc.), Town of New Windsor
• Hudson Valley Casino & Resort (Hudson Valley Gaming, LLC & Saratoga Harness Racing, Inc.), Town of Newburgh
• Live! Hotel & Casino New York (Cordish Companies and Penn National Gaming), Village of South Blooming Grove
• Resorts World Hudson Valley (Genting Americas / RW Orange County LLC), Town of Montgomery
• Sterling Forest Resort (Genting Americas / RW Orange County LLC), Town of Tuxedo
As the battle wages on, the Oneida Indian Nation is trying to guard its own territory, according to Syracuse.com. For the first time, the tribe has come out against Rochester developer Wilmorite, a company that hopes to build a casino resort in Seneca County. The Oneidas say a casino in the town of Tyre would derive 30 percent of its first-year revenues from existing tribal casinos. The Oneidas operate the Turning Stone Casino in Verona.
“The pie is only so big,” said Oneida spokesman Joel Barkin.
Wilmorite Vice President Juris Basens responded that there is “more than enough market” in the vicinity, and competition is healthy. “Each one of them will have to get better,” he said.
“We have a lot of work ahead of us, still,” Law said last week, as yet another round of casino applicants made their pitches. “And we anticipate being able to make some decisions in the month of October, certainly after the public hearings. But we are not going to hold ourselves to any particular deadline. We want to make sure we get the decisions right, as opposed to quickly.”
In the words of Charles Degliomini, executive vice president of Empire Resorts, Inc., which is behind the proposed Montreign Resort Casino in Sullivan County, “It’s not going to be about whose casino neon sign is bigger than the other guys’ casino neon sign. It’s going to be about who can drive tourism to upstate New York. And that’s us.”
