thinks that he can decide when the real "Easter Sunday" is and when the real "Palm Sunday" is.
Nassau should be open 365 days of the year and people may work, bet, and or pray any day that they wish.
NY Const. Art. 1, Sec. 3 is not just another brand of toilet paper?
NY PML Sec 109 does not apply to Nassau OTB and is unconstitutional. Go ask a court?
If Andrew Cuomo were interested in cash he would simply see that the work started at Fort Hamilton that produced The Lancet p.106 Jan. 14, 1978 is continued, preserved, widely applied and explicated. Why shouldn't pain be cured as opposed to simply being managed?
The idea that gambling money goes to education is most likely not supported by the public records showing
the flow of cash. These public records are kept as secret as the books of Nassau OTB?
Cuomo doubles down against racinos
Updated:
Gov. Andrew Cuomo cast doubt on the chances of two of his three
end-of-session legislative priorities Tuesday, all but declaring the
death of both the Women's Equality Act and anti-corruption packages he
had introduced, while confirming his plan to open new video lottery
terminals across the state.The governor would add the terminals, which are lever-less slot machines, including in some outer boroughs, if his referendum for legalized gambling fails to make the ballot or is voted down.
Mr. Cuomo also criticized the state's racetrack-casinos, or racinos, which have been lobbying against his plan for legalized gambling. And he left no doubt that the proposal to open new video-lottery-terminal venues should be a viewed as a threat to the racinos.
"These racinos are very well-financed players; they work the system extraordinarily well," Mr. Cuomo said in a radio interview. "Go pull their financial filings and their lobbyists and look who they have working for them. And they expect another gift, like the first gift—they should just become a casino. And I'm not going to do that."
Racinos lack human dealers because of a prohibition in the state constitution. Human dealers tend to attract more gamblers, increasing revenue.
Mr. Cuomo said he would oppose allowing the racinos to become full-fledged casinos because of years of lax regulation and political underhandedness has made them untrustworthy partners. "I don't want to do business that way," he said. "This is a lot of money."
Rather than simply transform racinos into casinos, Mr. Cuomo said he prefers an independent gaming committee to select casinos from a pool of applicants.
"The racinos lately are arguing, 'Just give us the franchise,'" he said. "They have a lot of friends in the Legislature. And I'm not going to give this franchise to anyone … It's going to go to the highest bidder with the best record and someone that can pass a background check for total integrity."
Over the weekend, racino insiders were circulating a version of Mr. Cuomo's casino bill that would allow for a video-lottery-terminal facility to be opened in the outer boroughs if the referendum in November failed. Such a facility in New York City, outside Manhattan, for example, may be authorized in the event that the casino referendum is defeated. Under the bill, that facility would be solely at the governor's discretion and would compete directly with Genting's Resorts World racino at the Aqueduct racetrack in Queens.
"If the referendum fails, we're not just going to go away, and say go to New Jersey and go to Massachusetts and do your gaming there," Mr. Cuomo said on the radio. "We'll do more VLTs—which is what we now do. Because we don't want to lose those dollars. This is money that can go to education."
It seems unlikely that the Legislature would pass a bill giving so much authority to the governor while subjecting racinos to new competition. But Mr. Cuomo said the argument that the state should "do nothing" if the referendum fails doesn't hold water.
"By that logic, Susan, if it fails because the people don't want gaming, then we should close the current racinos, right?" he said. "That's the only logical inference from what they're saying."
Whether that proposal should be seen as a threat to the racinos to fall in line, or as a contingency plan if the referendum fails, is open to interpretation.
Meanwhile, the passage of Mr. Cuomo's other two priorities—the Women's Equality Act and a package of anti-corruption legislation—appears to be in serious trouble. The Independent Democratic Conference, which shares control of the state Senate with Republicans, introduced a version of the governor's women's legislation that excluded a provision to codify federal abortion regulation. Republicans opposed the abortion language, and in a statement, IDC leader Jeff Klein said, "The votes [to pass the governor's bill] just are not there."
Mr. Cuomo said he and the coalition of women's groups pushing for the bill did not want to see it pass without the abortion language. And the governor conceded that his "Clean Up Albany" legislation was also doomed this year, which he says entitles him to create a Moreland Commission to investigate corruption in Albany. Both issues will now shift to 2014, which is an election year for all state representatives.
"I think they decided by their actions they want to deal with it in an election [year]," Mr. Cuomo said. "I think it's a serious mistake on their part, but I'm sure I've done things they think are a serious mistake on my part."
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