New York won't rush into expanded casino gambling

The state couldn't legalize full-scaled casinos until the earliest 2014 because it would require a change to the state constitution. Cuomo said the state should use the time to come up with a comprehensive plan on its gambling future.

"You're going to have two years. You could amend the constitution with language without getting into what regions and where," Cuomo said on WDGJ-AM (1300) in Albany. "I could see a scenario where you just amend the constitution and we have two years to put a system together."

Cuomo and legislative leaders reached a tentative agreement last week to pursue a constitutional amendment to legalize casino gambling.

A change in the state constitution would require approval by two consecutively elected legislatures. So it would have to be approved in 2012 and then again in 2013 when a new legislature is seated. Then it would have to be adopted by voters in November 2013.

Currently, casinos are restricted to five Native American reservations - three in western New York, Turning Stone near Syracuse and one in the North Country.

The state's nine racetracks have video-lottery terminals and want to be able to open full-fledged casinos, which would allow them to add table games such as blackjack and roulette.
Private developers will also undoubtedly want to build casinos, such as in the Catskills and other tourist areas.

Cuomo will likely have to decide whether to let the tracks become full-scale casinos or let other private developers in to build their own. He said there's no rush to decide when and where casinos would be located, and he plans to study the issue, perhaps through a new committee.

"I would like to do this in a comprehensive way and that's why I'm not eager to figure this all out for a February, March legislative session," Cuomo said. "Because I do believe we need a comprehensive plan."

The state would likely need specifics on where it wants to locate casinos before it takes it to voters, said James Featherstonhaugh, a top Albany lobbyist and head of the New York Gaming Association, which represents the tracks. "At the end of the day, there's no point in going to the public with a referendum unless you're prepared to tell the people what it is you want to do," he said.

Featherstonhaugh said the tracks already have the infrastructure in place, a revenue-sharing agreement with the state and a geographic balance of facilities that would make suitable for a gaming expansion. "We think it's a good plan. I'm sure there will people with other views," he said.

The Seneca Nation of Indians is fighting the state over the tribe's exclusive gaming rights in western New York. On Monday, the tribe filed for arbitration over what they claim is New York's violation of its gambling compact, which says it has exclusive rights in 14 counties in western New York.

Since January 2009, the Seneca Nation has withheld about $350 million in payments to the state from its three western New York casinos, in Niagara Falls; Buffalo and Salamanca, Cattaraugus County. The Senecas claim exclusive gaming rights west of Route 14, which runs south from Wayne County to the Pennsylvania border.

"The council, the Seneca people, and I are tired of the intrusions into our legal zone of exclusivity by competing casino games and horse tracks that market themselves as casinos," Seneca Nation President Robert Odawi Porter said in a statement.

New York already leads the country in lottery sales, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. New York had lottery sales of us$ 6.9 billion in 2010. Massachusetts had sales of us$ 4.2 billion and Florida was third at us$ 3.7 billion. New York also ranked highest in prizes awarded at us$ 4 billion.