NEW YORK – The state’s Gaming Facility Board voted Tuesday night to issue a request for applications for a second gaming casino in the Southern Tier region. Any thoughts of a second facility in the Hudson Valley-Catskills were dashed. Only the Empire Resorts’ project in Kiamesha Lake was chosen last month.
Orange County Executive Steven Neuhaus said he was disappointed with the announcement that Orange County was out of the running altogether. But he said “new commercial gaming will provide the Hudson Valley and other regions with critical property tax relief and millions of dollars in education aid.” Neuhaus said his focus “remains on adding to the jobs and economic development gains we realized in 2014 and working with state and regional partners to reduce current future local traffic impacts.”
Gaming Board Chairman Kevin Law said they stand by their decisions.
“There are winners and there are losers,” Law said. “We already decided two casinos in the Catskills did not make economic sense and that the Orange County applications either had deficiencies or would hurt the chances in the Catskills. The one in Ulster just didn’t make it on the merits; that decision, I think, should also stand.”
Any new applications for the greater Binghamton area must not be ones previously submitted, but new plans, the members emphasized.
Up to four casino sites were to be chosen under the first round and since one was selected in each region last month, Governor Cuomo recently sent a letter to the gaming board urging it to consider a second one for the Southern Tier.
