New Aqueduct VLTs Won't Pay to Purses, NYRA
Resorts World Casino at Aqueduct
The head of the horsemen's group at the three New York Racing Association tracks said it's "disappointing and head-scratching" that Aqueduct Racetrack will be getting 1,000 new video lottery terminals but revenue from the machines will not be shared with purses or NYRA.
The comments by Rick Violette Jr., president of the New York Thoroughbred Horsemen's Association, followed the recent state budget agreement that will allow Nassau Off-Track Betting Corp. to have 1,000 VLTs intended for Long Island placed instead at Resorts World New York Casino at Aqueduct.
Violette estimated purses should have been increased by about $4 million, or nearly 10%, had the new VLTs carried the same revenue-sharing split as the 5,525 machines in place at the end of March at Aqueduct. VLT revenue in New York goes to the state, gaming operators, host tracks, purses, and breeding funds.
The budget includes a "hold-harmless" provision to protect VLT payments to NYRA at 2013 levels, but such a requirement was already in the earlier law to protect against the effects of gambling revenue cannibalization from a casino in Nassau County.
Nassau OTB has been struggling against community opposition in various locations in its bid to site a casino with up to 1,000 VLTs. The casino authorization came in a 2013 law that also gave Suffolk Off-Track Betting Corp. the same deal; Suffolk, too, has been unable to find a home for a casino.
Nassau in December proposed putting its 1,000 gaming devices at Belmont Park, an idea that was met with protests by some state lawmakers and residents in the area. In closed-door talks that were finalized in late March, Nassau got Gov. Andrew Cuomo and lawmakers to insert language into the state budget to allow it to strike a deal with Genting, owner of Resorts World, to locate the 1,000 VLTs at Aqueduct.
The legislation, though, specifically treats the new VLTs at Aqueduct in Queens as if they were located in Nassau County. That means additional purse-sharing payments from the new machines at the track will not have to be made to horsemen.
Genting benefits from the deal by erasing competition from a nearby casino in Nassau County and by getting a large jump in revenue for future capital construction costs at Resorts World. Genting has not made public how it might spend the money, though some officials believe it may expand its footprint at Aqueduct to better position itself to compete for a full-scale casino license in the years ahead.
Violette said Nassau OTB would not have been able to "piggyback" onto the VLT operation at Aqueduct were it not for the racing industry.
"There was every expectation that we share in the revenue, and unfortunately that didn't happen," he said. "Without us, (Nassau OTB) still would have no place to go."
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