New York Casinos
File photo: Kevin Law, chairman of the Gaming Facility Location Board speaks during a meeting in December in Albany, N.Y. (AP Photo/Mike Groll)
(Mike Groll)
SYRACUSE, N.Y. - At the request of Gov. Andrew Cuomo, a state casino siting board tonight reversed itself and declared New York's Southern Tier and the state ready for a fourth Las Vegas-style casino - if the right proposal comes forward.
The decision comes just one month after the same panel indicated the state faced better odds if it licensed three full-scale casinos instead of four, as New York voters approved in 2013. It also comes after pressure from Southern Tier leaders and Cuomo to reconsider a casino for the region, which has some of the state's highest unemployment rates.
"I am sympathetic to the economic struggles of this region," said Kevin Law, the head of the New York Gaming Commission's Gaming Facility Location Board, a volunteer panel charged with recommending casino plans for licensing. "I do not see any harm in reissuing bids for this region."
The decision renews hope for Vernon Downs owner Jeff Gural, who wants to expand Tioga Downs near the Pennsylvania border from a racetrack and video gaming site into a casino with table games and a hotel.
But the board made it clear tonight that plans already submitted and rejected - like Gural's - are very unlikely to make the cut. Law said he was "not open-minded" about simply approving the applications already submitted.
"Let's see what else and who else may want to bid a casino in the region," Law said at tonight's meeting in New York City.
Gural said last week he plans to resubmit his plan and make it clearer that his past investments in Tioga Downs should count along with expansion plans.
It's still possible the panel could reject the new submissions, member Dennis Glazer said.
The Gaming Facility Location Board last month passed on Gural's plan and picked the Lago Resort & Casino Resort as the winner for a region including parts of the Finger Lakes and the Southern Tier.
The expanded gaming law approved by voters drew regions for new casinos in Upstate to afford Native American-run casinos buffer zones for the incoming competition; in exchange the tribes, including the Oneida Indian Nation, agreed to share gaming revenues with the state. That put parts of the Finger Lakes and the Southern Tier in competition with each other in the first round.
The siting board tonight said no other region would be reopened for bidding.
The Gaming Commission has yet to approve Lago and two other casinos for licensing. The commission's next meeting is set for Jan. 26.
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