Today, New York State starts taking bids on the four casinos it will soon be licensing upstate. At yet, there is no mechanism in place for determining licensing fees or whether the surrounding communities want the casinos or not. In the latter case, New York might do well to take a page from Massachusetts‘ book: Give both sides a month or two to make their case, then have the resident city vote the casino up or down. It beats having locations imposed by a five-member board in Albany. The Catskills area is regarded as the frontrunner. Would-be Nevele savior Michael Treanor hopes the $1 million application fee “will weed some people out” and there are a few projects that look like they have more hope than money. (Ironically, Treanor’s is one of those.)
Like Treanor and Genting Group beard Empire Resorts (above), few of the applicants are household names, except Foxwoods Resort Casino, which has a stake in the old Grossinger’s site. Asher Flaum‘s Woodbury Commons site might be deemed a ringer, since it’s near a Metro-North line into Manhattan, and upstate economic development is the preponderant criteria for getting chose. In the meantime, would-be developers are fairly panting for the release of the request for applications, which will lay out the criteria more explicitly.
Now for a word from our sponsor. The new Las Vegas Advisor is online. This month, we hunt down the best breakfast bargains in town, do our annual survey of show prices and provide a progress report on The Linq. What’s not to liqe?
