New York State Preparing for Its First Full-Scale Casinos
10 years ago
16 Dec
Earlier this week, the state of New York revealed plans to select sites for its first full-scale casinos. The plan is to build a gambling palace within an hour drive of New York City, a/k/a The Big Apple. Empire Resorts, Penn National Gaming, Churchill Downs and Full House Resort, all publicly traded companies, placed their bids along with 12 other companies for one of the four licenses that will be issued on December 17 by the Gaming Facility Location Board. Following the issuance of licenses, final approval must be received from the state gaming commission.
Among three regions approved for casinos is Catskill Mountains –Orange County, which is just 50 miles away from New York, making it the biggest prize for the bidding companies. The state is looking to balance economic growth in that region and to start accumulating bigger tax revenue.
In comparison, in Atlantic City and New Jersey, four of 12 casinos were closed this year and one is currently in bankruptcy court, which could indicate that the gambling industry is in a phase where new casinos are necessary.
Voters approved a constitutional amendment last year and New York became the largest U.S. state that will allow non-Indian casinos. Andrew Cuomo, the governor who backed the amendment, said that casinos might add $430 million to the revenues of both the local community and the state. There are already five full–scale casinos operated by Indian tribes in New York and nine video slot parlors at racetracks.
During hearings held in September, the five-member location board discussed with the bidders their ability to face competition from other states. Casinos were also approved for the capital region around Albany, and a third area along the Pennsylvania border.
Our primary focus is on picking the best locations. We have to look at economics as well, because we don’t want to do a disservice to residents of this state as the entire gaming industry is going through some type of retrenching." Kevin Law, the panel’s chairman and president of the Long Island Association, http://www.bloomberg.com;Genting, one of the bidders and the largest casino operator in Malaysia, is looking to tap into the database of its Asian customers with a focus on improvement of New York economics and on bringing back money currently spent by gamblers out of state.
Las Vegas-based Caesars, which is also the largest operator in Atlantic City, explained that they were planning to employ their list of 45 million names, many of whom are celebrities.
Jan Jon Blackhrust, head of government relations, explained that it is possible to have two casinos - one in Orange County and one in the Catskills, so one license would not preclude the other.
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