Nassau OTB will have to close the slot machines on the Race Palace on Roman Catholic Easter Sunday and Roman Catholic Palm Sunday as they have done for years and years. Money about is pockets and little else.
It is time to follow the example set by the citizens of Brazil and start the Gambling Party, for the people by the people.
Casino Referendum Planned by New York Leaders
Nathaniel Brooks for The New York Times
Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo said on
Wednesday that the move on casinos was “about gaming, and gaming is
about tourism, and tourism is about jobs.” A constitutional amendment is
required.
By JESSE McKINLEY and THOMAS KAPLAN
Published: June 19, 2013
ALBANY — Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo and legislative leaders have agreed to ask
voters in November to amend the State Constitution to allow a
significant expansion of casino gambling.
Although voters would be asked to authorize as many as seven new
casinos, the governor and legislators said they would also approve a law
allowing, at least for the next seven years, only four, located in the
Catskills, the Albany area and the Southern Tier region along the border
with Pennsylvania.
If voters approve the constitutional amendment, New York would become
the most populous state in the nation with full-scale Las Vegas-style
casinos with table games like craps and roulette. New York already has
five upstate casinos owned by Indian tribes, and as well as nine
racetracks with electronic gambling, also known as racinos. The new
casinos would not be near the tribal casinos or in New York City and its
suburbs.
On Wednesday, Mr. Cuomo called casinos a critical part of a larger
effort to revitalize the economies of long-suffering upstate regions,
along with tax-free zones at state universities and a financial
restructuring board. He said the casino legislation was “about gaming,
and gaming is about tourism, and tourism is about jobs.”
But the referendum is far from a sure thing. A Quinnipiac University
poll earlier this month showed that 48 percent of New York voters
favored amending the Constitution to allow expanded casino gambling.
Support was even weaker in New York City, a dynamic that poses a
potential challenge to supporters of expanded gambling because the
mayoral race is expected to mean higher turnout in the city than in
other parts of the state.
“It’s pretty much a standoff,” said Maurice Carroll, the director of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute.
Businesses and organizations with strong interests in gambling have been
spending millions on lobbying and political contributions in Albany to
influence lawmakers on whether to reject or accept the expansion.
According to an analysis by the New York Public Interest Research Group,
a government watchdog group, these groups with gambling interests have
given nearly $2 million to statewide campaign committees, candidates and
parties.
One of those donors is Genting New York, which runs a successful slot
parlor at the Aqueduct racetrack in Queens. Genting has donated more
than $125,000 to dozens of Republican and Democratic candidates since
the 2010 election. The new casino deal would effectively ensure the
company’s monopoly in the borough for at least seven years, and on
Wednesday, the company said it fully supported “the governor’s goals of
upstate job creation and economic development outlined in the proposal.”
Mr. Cuomo has also seemingly neutralized some of the potential in-state
opposition, in part by striking three recent deals with Indian tribes to
settle long-simmering contract disputes and other issues. Those tribes,
which received geographic exclusivity for their gambling operations,
could have been potent financial backers of a “no” campaign.
Another potential opponent — the New York Gaming Association, which
represents the state’s racinos — indicated that the proposal was “a
great improvement” after the governor and leaders made several changes
to protect the racetracks, the association’s president, James
Featherstonehaugh, said.
A casino referendum would quite likely be opposed by some religious
groups and people who oppose gambling as a form of regressive taxation
and possibly by the operators of casinos in neighboring states who fear
competition from expanded casino gambling in New York. Dennis Poust, a
spokesman for the New York State Catholic Conference, said on Wednesday
that the state’s bishops were concerned about the impact of compulsive
gambling, as well as social ills “associated with casinos, like crime
and prostitution.”
The casino bill, introduced late on Tuesday and announced on Wednesday,
would also permit 2,000 new video lottery terminals — similar to slot
machines — at off-track-betting parlors in Nassau and Suffolk Counties, a
plan backed by Dean G. Skelos, the Long Island Republican who shares
leadership of the State Senate with a group of breakaway Democrats.
The casino issue was not the only one being settled during the last days
of the legislative session. Late on Tuesday, the governor split his
10-point Women’s Equality Act, which includes a measure strengthening
the state’s guarantee of abortion rights, into 10 stand-alone bills
after previously insisting that all 10 points be included in a single
piece of legislation.
Mr. Cuomo said on Wednesday that he did not want lawmakers to be able to cite procedural reasons for skipping a vote.
“If they don’t vote, it’s because they don’t want to vote,” he said, “and a nonvote is a no vote.”
Mr. Cuomo, anticipating lawmakers would not take up his proposals to
address corruption in the Legislature, also said on Wednesday that he
would name a commission to investigate campaign fund-raising by state
elected officials.
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