Casinos in & around NYC: A good bet
Since Gov. Hochul included a proposal in her executive budget that would allow for casino licenses to be issued in the downstate area two months ago, there has been much debate over whether or not to bring gaming to New York City.
But if we’re being honest with ourselves, that debate is in our rearview mirror, because gaming — in the form of mobile sports betting — is already happening right here and right now. What still lies ahead is the most important benefit that only in-person gaming can offer but mobile betting has not and cannot provide: the jobs and boost to our hospitality and tourism industries that an acceleration of full casino gaming options would bring.
Since mobile sports betting came online in New York at the start of the year, we have seen a record-breaking $3.1 billion in bets wagered by millions of New Yorkers, and that’s with March Madness and the NBA playoffs still to come. All that money changing hands may make for impressive statistics, but not a cent of it is landing in the pockets of those who need it most, namely the thousands of unemployed hospitality workers you would immediately benefit from an expansion of full casino gaming in the downstate area.
As president of the union that represents gaming and hospitality workers, I can say based on firsthand knowledge that our hotel and tourism industries have been hit harder and struggled longer than almost any other sector due to COVID. For example, based on NYC employment data from the New York Department of Labor, the “Traveler Accommodation” industry, which includes hotel workers, experienced a larger percentage decrease in jobs than any other industry, with a drop of more than 60% in the period between September 2019 and July 2021. New York may be rebounding and the hospitality industry starting to show signs of life again, but the thousands of jobs and billions in tourism revenue we lost due to COVID won’t come back unless we do something drastic and immediate to turn the tide. An expansion of gaming options is the game-changer we have been waiting for and that we desperately need.
According to a report issued last year by Spectrum Gaming Group for the New York State Gaming Commission, the economic impact of downstate commercial casinos would be enormous. Thousands of extremely high-quality jobs with full health benefits, $1.5 billion in licensing fees and hundreds of millions in revenue annually for the state, including money for public education, are just some of the critical reasons for bringing full casino gaming to the downstate area.
With nearly half of our unionized hotel workforce still unemployed due to the pandemic and two years of diminished business and leisure travel bookings, we don’t have the luxury of getting this wrong. We know the new jobs that will be created will be good jobs because we already have seen it happen at existing gaming facilities.
At Resorts World Casino in Queens and Empire City Casino in Yonkers — so-called racinos, where only electronic gaming options are currently available — our members, the vast majority of whom are people of color and women, receive family-sustaining salaries of about $70,000 per year. They also enjoy cost-free employer-funded high-quality health care and defined-benefit pension plans that has helped lift an overwhelming 76% of these workers off of government assistance for food and medical care. Combined with the strongest workplace protections in the industry, thanks to our union contract, these jobs are truly unique, but that does not mean they should be exclusive to only those who already have them.
Thousands of New Yorkers, including many of the unionized hospitality workers that have been unemployed since the start of the pandemic, could immediately find themselves off the unemployment rolls and back on a payroll. By permitting full casino gaming operations in and around New York City, we will not only generate economic opportunities for all New Yorkers, but give jobless people in the hotel industry a chance to regain the opportunity for employment that was stripped away from them by COVID.
People will always be free to debate the benefits of gaming, but one thing that has been proven beyond a shadow of doubt is that the jobs gaming has already produced are very real and very beneficial to employees and their families. And the possibility of more jobs, along with the increased economic activity for local businesses, many of them minority- and women-owned businesses, in the communities around existing facilities is an opportunity we must seize on now.
With billions of dollars already being wagered online without any jobs actually being created, there is no reason not to meaningfully expand gaming operations in a way that will actually benefit New Yorkers by creating more good jobs.
Maroko is president of the 40,000-member NY Hotel & Gaming Trades Council, the union for hotel and gaming workers in New York and Northern New Jersey.