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Amid an outburst from a casino opponent, the Islandia village board Friday morning voted to approve a controversial Suffolk OTB casino plan.
The board voted as casino opponent Martin Dettling shouted “Don’t let this clown bully you,” an apparent reference to Mayor Allan M. Dorman. Dettling then chanted “No Casino” before public safety officers escorted him out.
As he was removed, a casino supporter, Donna Briscoe, chanted “Yes casino!”
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The chaotic meeting lasted five minutes. Village board members walked out without commenting.
The board’s 4-0 vote was drowned out by the protester’s shouts. Trustee Diane Olk did not attend the meeting.
“What a sham,” she texted a reporter after the vote.
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Delaware North, the Buffalo hotel and entertainment conglomerate developing the casino for Suffolk County Regional Off-Track Betting Corp., had requested a special permit to build the betting parlor with 1,000 video lottery terminals in the Islandia Marriott Long Island hotel, on the Long Island Expressway north service road. OTB officials have said they hope to open the betting parlor in three to four months.
In a statement released after the vote, Dorman said the casino would create 200 jobs and cut taxes “by up to 50 percent” for residents.
Village Mayor Allan M. Dorman reads the motion to approve the controversial casino in Islandia on Aug. 12, 2016. Photo Credit: Ed Betz
“We have taken steps to ensure Delaware North’s operation of this hotel and the VLTs will have a minimal impact on the surrounding communities and it will be a hotel operating VLTs, not the other way around,” he said. “For one, there will be no Vegas-style shows at the hotel. Tony Orlando is not coming to Islandia.”
The vote marks the first time in Suffolk OTB’s three-year effort to build a casino that a governmental body has taken a vote on the plan.
OTB earlier this year abandoned a proposed Medford casino site amid opposition from residents and Brookhaven Town officials.
OTB hoped to receive a friendlier reception in Islandia, but many village residents, as well as residents of nearby communities such as Hauppauge and Ronkonkoma, opposed the plan, citing crime, reduced property values and traffic.
Some Islandia residents supported the casino, saying it would lower their property taxes and create jobs in the community.
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