Timeline extended
Review of state’s gambling landscape will take longer than planned.
An ambitious review of New York’s gambling landscape will take longer than initially planned, as state officials restart their search for a firm to conduct the analysis.
Industry insiders and state lawmakers anticipate the study will prompt a shakeup of the state’s gambling rules and regulations, potentially leading to the development of three casinos in the New York City area.
But the changes could be delayed as work on the study — planned for completion at the end of the year — has fallen more than a month behind schedule. On Tuesday, the state Gaming Commission revealed it was scrapping the original timeline and it launched a new search for a firm to conduct the review.
Explaining the impetus for a second round of proposals, state Gaming Commission Executive Director Rob Williams said: “We were concerned that the aggressive timeline might result in compromised data and determined speed was less valuable than accuracy, especially given the intention that the product might be used to advise future policy determinations.”
The initial plan to complete the project in four months was deemed unrealistic by members of the gambling community, who noted the broad review includes casinos, sports betting, horse racing and off-track betting corporations. The commission believes the new sixmonth timeline, with portions of the work due in stages and a final report due June 1, is manageable.
The study represents a change for the state, which didn’t pursue a similar analysis before introducing video gaming terminals in 2002, or in 2013 with the adoption of Las Vegas-style casinos.
Sen. Joseph P. Addabbo Jr., a Queens Democrat who is the chamber’s point person on gambling issues, says he isn’t troubled by a delay if the study produces credible information.
“If we don’t use the study for the budget but we use it for the end of the legislative session, that is fine,” Addabbo said.
By April, the state wants the review to be “substantially” done, with an analysis of the existing casinos, the ramifications of issuing three new casino licenses and the potential market of online gambling, including sports wagering.
The results could be used to expedite the licensing for new casinos and provide tax relief to upstate casinos, according to Uri Clinton, president of Empire City Casino in Yonkers, which is vying to get a license to operate live-table games.
“Clearly, the population upstate ... doesn’t allow the support of the tax rates there,” Clinton said. “The question now becomes, how can the industry help itself?”
He anticipates the study will show that introducing casinos into the New York City area will enable the state to lower tax rates for upstate casinos, such as Rivers Casino & Resort in Schenectady, and produce higher levels of state tax revenue.
Addabbo said he’s hoping the report can be used to expand sports gambling beyond the upstate casinos. “I’m all in on mobile sports betting . ... I hope that’s part of it,” he said.