Residents of Long Island may find a new casino in the area if a current proposal that is being considered is approved. At this point, the idea is being discussed in non-public venues according to the Off Track Betting Corporation for Nassau County. Also, the idea was introduced through a bill in the legislature. The casino, if approved, would include video slots.
Members of the majority party have sponsored the bill for the new casino that would house as many as 2000 slot video machines. The facility would be run Suffolk and Nassau County off track betting agents. This could help with Gov. Cuomo’s proposal for statewide casinos. The governor has already proposed at least 3 new casinos in upstate areas. These would Vegas-style facilities.
According to insider’s, the discussions have been going on for some months now in Albany. The new casino could draw in from the 3 million people who live in Long Island. It was also mentioned that another idea was to build two separate, albeit smaller, casinos that would each house 1000 slot video machines.
Time may be running out though as there are only a handful of weeks left in this current legislative session. The proposal and the bill were sponsored by a Suffolk County Assemblyman, Steven Englebright, a Democrat. The bill states the casino would include high-quality consumer amenities as well as offer conveniences that would attract patrons and tourists from all over. On the Senate side, the bill has been sponsored by Sen. Phil Boyle, Long Island.
The governor’s office says that the current proposal is not a part of his overall negotiations that is having with the legislative leaders. It was reported that this current proposal has been in the think tank for many years now, and has nothing to with the statewide proposals that are being discussed.
It is common knowledge that in Albany, closed-door meetings between legislative leaders and the governor are kept secret. Most of the major proposals that are discussed are not announced until some type of deal is made. It then heads straight to Legislature for a vote.
At issue here is that the new proposal, if passed, would be the opposite to what Cuomo has put out stating that his commission would chose casino vendors, and that casino operators would be involved in site selection, not the Legislature. Any video slot casino that would be run by the off track betting agencies of Nassau and Suffolk would, it is suggested, keep the Legislature involved in jobs associated with the facility.
The vast majority of the nine racino facilities operating now are said to be doing well. These centers do not offer table games but they do offer patrons access to video slot machines. The racino operators state that they would be the best candidates for becoming privately operated casinos that the governor has proposed for upstate New York and, then some five years later, the NY City area. Further details of the current proposal should be forthcoming as the legislative session nears its conclusion.