New York panel to award casino licenses today

Voters last year authorized the casinos, which will be divided among three upstate regions: the Albany-Saratoga area, the Southern Tier-Finger Lakes region and the Catskills and Mid-Hudson Valley. With its proximity to New York City, the Catskills and Mid-Hudson opportunity attracted the most interest, with nine bidders. Four applicants put in proposals for the Albany area, and three threw their hats into the ring for the Southern Tier-Finger Lakes region.

Members of the board have said they plan to base their decision on the strength of the proposals and their potential economic impact to the surrounding communities. In the past several months the board has pored over 75,000 pages of application materials, heard from more than 400 people during public comment sessions and received more than 3,000 written comments.

Gamblers are increasingly choosing smaller casinos closer to home, and the reshuffling of the market has disrupted an industry once dominated by Las Vegas, Atlantic City and a handful of tribal casinos. Atlantic City lost four of its 12 casinos this year, and behemoths like Connecticut's Mohegan Sun and Foxwoods have seen slumps–even as states like Massachusetts, Maryland and New York look to get into the market.

New York's new casinos were intended to bring jobs and tourism to economically struggling areas of the state. The three regions were picked to spread out the benefits - and to avoid competition with existing tribal casinos.

Aside from the deciding the winners , Wednesday's decision will settle several open questions: will the board favor projects that stand to raise the most revenue, or go with those in the most economically disadvantaged locations? Will two licenses be awarded in the Catskills and Mid-Hudson Valley? Several developers have warned that a casino in Orange County, with its closeness to New York City, would make it almost impossible for a casino to work in Ulster or Sullivan.

The board's decision will not be the final step. Background checks and environmental reviews will need to be completed, and the licenses must be formally awarded by the state's Gaming Commission. There's also the threat of lawsuits from local opponents concerned about traffic, environmental impact, zoning and the effects of expanded gambling.  Governor Andrew Cuomo has stated that he is staying out of the decision.