The stakes are high, but is New York City ready for its first “Vegas-style” casino?
That was the question posed at a virtual town hall hosted by State Senator Liz Krueger, other elected officials and anti-gambling advocates Thursday. And the resounding answer from most in attendance was ‘no.’
“I have been very clear for many years, I oppose casinos and gambling in general,” Krueger said at the meeting, which was open virtually to the public. “I find it to be a tax on desperation with no societal benefits and real prices to be paid.”
The panel of anti-casino speakers included Vicki Been, member, state Gaming Facility Location Board; Lucy Dadayan, principal research associate with Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center; Les Bernal, executive director, Stop Predatory Gambling; and Tom Kirdahy, producer and member of The Broadway League.
The meeting was held the same week Related Companies unveiled their proposal for a casino on the West Side of Manhattan. Related is one of several major developers vying for one of three coveted casino licenses to be granted by the state in the NYC area.
Where are the proposed sites for casinos in NYC?
Other possible sites for casinos within the Big Apple include Times Square, Saks Fifth Avenue, Midtown West, Midtown East, Brooklyn, Queens and the Bronx.
The locations are different but the concerns from New Yorkers are the same. Many posed questions about the detrimental effects of building large, “Vegas-style,” full-service casinos in the heart of the city. Concerns centered around the possibilities of housing-value decline, crime and many quality-of-life issues.
According to Dadayan, who showed various charts and graphs detailing research on gaming institutions that have opened across the country, casinos can lead to increased traffic, noise and high crime rates, all of which could potentially cause steep property value declines.
“Of course, the ripple effect,” Dadayan explained. “Decreased property values will lead to lower property tax revenues, negatively impacting the city’s budget.”
Job creation and tax revenue have been touted in the past as two of the main pluses for building casinos in U.S. cities. But Dadayan detailed the arguments against these benefits.
“Casinos are not really a bonanza for state and local budgets,” she said. “Revenues from casinos are always volatile. They can deteriorate or decrease over time.”
Casinos create job opportunities in their surrounding areas, but they also affect the job market for existing businesses, she added.
Bernal, of Stop Predatory Gambling, said local casinos are one of the root causes of the financial distress and lack of mobility out of poverty facing millions of American families.
“Over the next six years, the American people are on a downward spiral to lose more than $1 trillion of their personal wealth to predatory gambling,” he said.
Will casinos open in New York City?
Up to three casinos could open in the coming years in NYC. Per the New York State constitution, seven commercial casinos are allowed to open within the state. Four have already opened upstate since 2014. Developers are now aggressively lobbying for permission to fill the remaining three slots–or licenses–available in the New York City area.
But the siting process for approval is competitive and pretty lengthy. It requires developers to pay a $1 million application fee and go through a series of approvals and permits, including approval from governor- and mayor-appointed community advisory committees.
Although Krueger and other state and city politicians are opposed to casinos, Governor Kathy Hochul and Mayor Eric Adams have been supportive and in strong favor of casino development within the city.
According to a Gothamist article, Adams is trying to streamline the approval process for bidders, with the Department of City Planning proposing a new rule that would allow casinos to bypass the normal public review process.
In 2022, Hochul’s spending plan showed support for granting licenses for three new casinos in the NYC metro area.
In related news, Hochul announced in January that the state collected more than $1.55 billion in taxes upon the two-year anniversary of mobile sports wagering in New York. According to a press release, that money will be used to fund education, youth sports programming and problem gambling prevention treatment and recovery services.
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