Magnanimously, Traditions at the Glen partner — and losing casino bidder — Peter Walsh is throwing his support to racino mogul Jeff Gural. The latter is trying to pry New York‘s fourth and last new-casino license loose from New York State’s siting board, with a 
view to upgrading his Tioga Downs racino into a full-service casino. “The people up there [near the Pennsylvania border] were promised a casino, and somehow the casino they were promised ended up near Canada,” said Gural, who promises he can be operational in three months. The siting board had opted for Tyre, betwixt Syracuse and Rochester. Gural and Walsh’s plea has the support of several lawmakers, including Rep. Tom Reed (R). No fracking, no casino, why don’t you just tell ’em they can all move someplace else?,” fumed Gural, who called the choice of Tyre “unbelievably stupid.”
Up in Tyre, however, it’s all good for winning bidder Thomas Wilmot, who says more competition in the relatively crowded market “will push every casino to do a better job for the 
customers, and that’s good.” Wilmot’s business plan budgets for heavy cannibalization of revenues from existing tribal casinos (30%) and racinos (21%). As Seneca Nation President Barry Snyder Jr. protests, “The proposed Lago [Casino Resort] project does not seek to complement surrounding established economic factors, but rather aims to draw people away from economic centers like Buffalo, Rochester and Syracuse and create a stand-alone silo.” It certainly crimps plans by both the Senecas and the Oneida Nation to extend the reach of their casino empires.
The Oneidas have already announced Yellow Brick Road Casino, near Syracuse, and the Seneca had hoped to expand operations into Monroe County, or possibly at Finger Lakes Racetrack in Ontario County. Now they have Lago sitting 10 miles from the edge of their exclusivity region and driving a wedge between their lands and the Oneidas’.
Gural got an indirect boost from Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D), who urged consideration of the Southern Tier for a fourth license. “The Binghamton area is tied for the region with the 
highest unemployment rate in upstate New York, and stands to benefit greatly from new jobs and economic development in the region,” Cuomo wrote, in a reversal of his position just nine days earlier. (Notice that lucrative Oxford County continues to be dealt out of the process.) Cuomo’s is seen as a break from his hands-off approach to the selection process. The ink was scarcely dry on the choices when Cuomo said, “I don’t know why they made what decisions they made, but it wasn’t my place to interfere and I don’t want to second-guess them now.”
Now that he is second-guessing, Cuomo argues, “it may excite national competition by interested parties that submit even better applications than the first round,” which makes it sound like he’s reopening the whole kit n’ kaboodle. That’s be unfair to applicants like Gural who played by the rules the first time around and hardly need any carpetbaggers flocking into the Southern Tier.
Economists, meanwhile, are tamping down revenue expectations. “The fireworks aren’t as big or bright. These casinos could be a steady source of income, but they won’t generate the 
maximum number of revenues or jobs,” Macquarie Securities analyst Chad Beynon cautioned the New York Times. He says the chosen locations will be handicapped by their remoteness and that New York should have picked at least one nominee from Oxford County. Fitch Ratings analyst Alex Bumazhny holds the same view — “Casinos in the Catskills and elsewhere will have a greater challenge because the Northeast is pretty saturated.” The State Gaming Commission, however, viewed Orange County as a threat to going concerns at Monticello and in Yonkers. (The NYT notes that similar fears of cannibalization were a non-factor in Tyre’s selection. “It was more of a choice between Lago and nothing in the region,” said Gaming Facility Location Board Chairman Kevin Law.)
For that matter, as the Times notes, no major player showed any interest in the Finger Lakes region the first time around. What’s to make Cuomo think a rematch would be any different?
* In the Catskills, basking in the glow of victory, Empire Resorts is already talking of expanding its winning casino project (above). The $1.1 billion development may sprout residential development, in addition to a shooting range and upgrades to Empire-owned Monticello Gaming & Raceway. Empire Resorts Chairman Emanuel Pearlman proclaimed, “It’s not going to be: Come here and play a slot machine … I’m pretty much open to anything.”
* New York, not California, may also be the next state to have a fiddle with intrastate, online gambling. Consider that its population base is more than double that of New Jersey and it’s 
no wonder that MGM Resorts International is already lobbying of ‘Net betting. It reckons that New Yorkers wager $110 million annually on Internet poker sites alone. Gaming-tax projections are in the $50 million-$80 million ballpark (presuming a 15% tax rate) but, as with the Garden State, we’ll have to believe that when we see it.
The state has visited this issue before, with lawmakers proposing to auction off 10 online-poker licenses at a cool $10 million apiece. The original legislation also empowered New York to compact with other states, as Nevada and Delaware have done. State Sen. John Bonacic (R, left), one of the powers behind casino expansion, is gently nudging this forward, so it’s got some juice.
* Scratch another Spanish EuroVegas, this one intended for the Barcelona area. The $6 billion project is hanging by a thread after developer Veremonte declined to pay a $462 
million option on the site. The Catalan government is giving Veremonte a generous, 18-month grace period in which to decide how or it will proceed, protecting the site from land speculators in the meantime. In addition to a stadium and theme parks, Veremonte’s plans called for six casino megaresorts (6,000 employees apiece). Lawrence Ho (right) was among those showing interest, as were fast-rising Hard Rock International and Caesars Entertainment, which continues to throw itself at every market in sight, bankruptcy or no. Reports Inside Asia Gaming, “significant regulatory modifications will be needed to adapt the project to the urban planning of the area.”
* The ubiquitous Mr. Ho has teamed with PokerStars. He will open a PokerStars-branded card room at City of Dreams Manila, starting with 14 tables. (This is Ho’s second partnership with PokerStars, following one in Macao.) Feeling just a bit euphoric, PokerStars’ Asia-Pacific Director of Live Operations Danny McDonagh enthused, “I have the utmost confidence that our…collaboration in Manila will take poker in the Philippines to new heights.”
