New York Lawmaker Wants To Expedite Downstate Casino LicenseDemocratic Senator From Cornwall Believes Expedited License Will Fix Budget Issues |
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A New York lawmaker wants to expedite the timeline for awarding downstate casino licenses to generate much needed revenue for the state in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.
During a virtual town hall, Sen. James Skoufis, a Democrat from Cornwall, said that the state needs to find ways to make up for the multi-billion-dollar deficit the state is running, stemming from coronavirus-induced lockdowns. In Skoufis’ opinion, awarding the two licenses allotted for New York City-area casinos are the easiest way to erase that deficit.
According to a report from the Mid Hudson News, Skoufis is hoping that the state will receive federal funding in the next stimulus bill, but that’s not guaranteed to come to fruition. If the state doesn’t receive funding and nothing is done, Skoufis estimates that the state will either have to raise taxes or make significant cuts to the budget.
“The proposal would be to accelerate the license to 2020, or early 2021,” said Skoufis at the townhall. “And so, we would get those two $500 million one-shots: a billion dollars between the two licenses. The casinos themselves, their openings would not be accelerated. They would still open, as the schedule stands now, in 2023, but we would accelerate the licensing payments that are associated.”
At the start of 2019, MGM Resorts purchased Empire City Casino and Yonkers Raceway from the Rooney family for $850 million. The racino, located just a few miles north of New York City, is currently only allowed to slot machines and horse races, but the gaming giant purchased the property in anticipation of receiving a full-scale gaming license down the road.
When the state allowed four upstate casinos to open, Gov. Andrew Cuomo put a moratorium in place on new casinos in the state in an effort to protect the newly opened properties from competition. That moratorium expires in 2023, at which point, at which point operators can compete for business much closer to the country’s most populated city.
“I know it’s a topic of conversation, but I have no opinion or intention of making any changes at the time,” Cuomo told local news outlets about the moratorium in 2019. “It’s an evolving field, there’s no doubt about that.”
While Cuomo has held strong on that stance thus far, a pandemic and a billions in deficit spending could change his tune.
He has, however, been steadfast in keeping the entire gaming industry closed while the virus is still spreading. Those four casinos that he was protecting with the moratorium have been closed since mid-March without any timeline of a reopening.
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