Decision on NY casino locations not expected soon

2014-10-31

Reading time 2:22 min

(US).- The state commission tasked with choosing where to locate new casinos in the state was expected to issue its decision by the end of this month. At this point, that’s unlikely, said a spokesman for the state Racing and Wagering Board, which is overseeing the process. “There is no actual deadline in the statute,” spokesman Lee Park said. “They want to get it done, but get it done right.” Commission members have said publicly that if they need to stretch the process into November, so be it.

Governor Andrew Cuomo has solicited proposals for casinos in three regions: the capital district, the Catskills and the Eastern Southern Tier. He also has granted exclusivity agreements to some Indian tribes, including the Oneida Indian Nation. At issue for Oneida County officials - and for the Oneida Nation’s Turning Stone Resort Casino and the privately owned Vernon Downs Casino & Hotel - is a US$ 425 million proposal for Tyre in Seneca County.

The Tyre proposal, called Lago Resort and Casino, would be 80 miles west of Turning Stone. Syracuse, a major market for Turning Stone, is roughly midway between Tyre and Verona, where Turning Stone is located. Vernon Downs is close to Turning Stone, and its owner, Jeff Gural, has said that if Lago is built, the Downs could go under. Gural has a proposal of his own for a casino in the Southern Tier at his Tioga Downs track.

Oneida County has a revenue-sharing agreement with the Oneida Nation and it expects to get about US$ 12.5 million a year in perpetuity and another US$ 2.5 million for the next 19 years. Turning Stone employs about 4,500 people.

Passions on both sides of the Lago proposal are running high. Earlier this month, Seneca County Board of Supervisors Chairman Robert Hayssen likened Oneida County Executive Anthony Picente to “Saddam Hussein in his rat hole when they captured him,” because Picente’s county has Turning Stone but doesn’t want Seneca County to have a casino. Also on Wednesday, a report commissioned and released by Mohawk Valley EDGE slammed the Lago plan, saying it would take almost 70 percent of its revenue from existing gaming venues, including Turning Stone and Vernon Downs.

“Essentially, what it means is that only about 30 percent of its revenue will be new growth in the market,” said the report’s author, Clyde Barrow of the University of Texas – Pan American.

He also questioned Lago promoters’ contention that the competition would force the existing casinos to get better and benefit consumers. “It’s just not true,” he said. “The argument is, are we crossing a critical threshold and are we undermining things by putting too many casinos too close together?”

He said about 50 percent of Lago’s business would come from existing casinos, not 70 percent as Barrow alleged. “This front group for an organization that’s had a 20-year casino monopoly found a hired gun to produce a fraudulent report that shockingly says exactly what Turning Stone wanted it to say,” Wilmot said in an emailed statement. “It uses wrong, outdated data about Lago on the front end so we’re not surprised that the cliché ‘garbage in, garbage out’ is the kindest thing we can say about this report.”

Oneida Nation spokesman Joel Barkin noted that it was the Mohawk Valley EDGE economic development agency that commissioned the report, not the Nation, and declined to comment further.

EDGE President Steve DiMeo said he stands by the report, that it is accurate. “All one has to do is look at Atlantic City to see what happens in an oversaturated market,” he said.