Representatives of New York City‘s ritziest borough have made it abundantly clear that they don’t want a casino in Manhattan. But it appears that Gov. Kathy Hochul (D) is going to impose one on them, public appetite be damned. Perhaps the most in-your-face idea being floated is a casino atop Saks Fifth Avenue—directly opposite St. Patrick’s Cathedral. In what’s no April Fool’s joke, the state budget would be approved tomorrow and with it three downstate casinos at a license fee of $1 billion each. Big Gaming has spent $300,000 on lobbying Albany and it would appear that money talks loudly up thataway. Hochul is also indebted for election dollars to the Hotel & Gaming Trades Council, whose position on the issue you can guess.
“These are jobs that pay $36 an hour, have free family health care and have a pension plan. So they are in dire straits because many of them have been out of work for two years without any immediate prospect of comparable employment,” said union President Richard Maroko. Other receptive ears include New York City Mayor Eric Adams (D), who’s on board with the casino-in-Manhattan concept and has been dickering with Las Vegas Sands. (Adams is no stranger to Monaco, by the way.) The high-roller pitch for Saks flipped the allegiance of state Sen. Liz Krueger (D), who says a casino is now okey-dokey with her as long as it’s soaking the upper class rather than the working man. “There may be support in some parts of the city for siting a casino,” she backpedaled. “I’m not so sure that my district in Manhattan [the Upper East Side] would be open to one.”
Assemblyman Richard Gottfried (D) remains opposed, saying, “I find it hard to believe that once there is one casino in Manhattan, there wouldn’t be strong pressure to have more.” Hard Rock International is going for all the marbles, pitching a casino for Times Square, but Bally’s Corp. is falling back to the outer boroughs, particularly near Citi Field in Flushing. “We want to make sure all the parties involved have some say as to, if the location as proposed is acceptable by them,” allowed Assemblyman Gary Pretlow (D, above), which was mighty big of him. City dwellers have an ally in state Sen. Joseph Abbaddo, who grumbled, “I didn’t have community input when I had Resorts World thrust upon us. I’m thankful 10 years later that we have it. But we couldn’t even pick out the color of the carpet.”
Meanwhile upstate, the Seneca Nation controversy is going out with a whimper. The tribe quietly paid out $565 million to the state, after maintaining for years that it didn’t owe one thin dime. Hochul forced the tribes hand by freezing its bank accounts. It represents a 25% impost on Seneca slots and VLTs, money that had built up in escrow for five years in a compact dispute. (A 2002 pact put the revenue-sharing up for renewal in 2017 if neither party objected, but the Seneca merely declared it null and void. The courts disagreed.) Seneca official Leslie Logan reported that, after Hochul’s fatwa, tribal checks started bouncing: “There are homeowners payments that cannot be paid. We can’t issue invoices for pharmaceuticals. There were all kinds of repercussive impacts that were crippling, just crippling.”
A new Seneca compact must be negotiated next year and the talks are unlikely to be pleasant.“Don’t use the people of Western New York as pawns in your obvious desire to destroy the Seneca Nation,” growled nation President Matthew Pagels. “You have an obligation under federal law to negotiate a compact with the Seneca Nation in good faith. Honor it.”
Wasting no time, Hochul quickly earmarked $418 million for a new stadium for the Buffalo Bills, part of a $600 million state subsidy for the $1.4 billion project. Congressman Thomas Scuozzi (D), a Hochul election rival, was equally quick to zap the governor for making the Seneca “fork over their tax dollars to help a billionaire donor get even richer.” Added state Sen. Mike Martucci (R), “I like the Bills as much as anyone but this is outrageous. Republicans are often criticized for being buddies with billionaires. What would you call this?”
Nor was Pagels amused. He took to Facebook to blast Hochul: “Hundreds of millions of dollars from Western New York, in her own words, [were] given to billionaires after intentionally and unnecessarily holding the Senecas and thousands of Western New Yorkers and families hostage for several days by strangling various bank accounts held by the nation and our businesses. Governor Hochul couldn’t contain her excitement to boast about her Seneca ransom money for a new stadium.” What’s worse, Hochul had the nerve to “thank President Pagels and the Nation leadership for fulfilling their commitment to the people of New York.”
She’s certainly got some elbow.
If you live in Nevada, congratulations. The Silver State is the second-most stressed-out in the U.S., according to a new survey. Only Louisiana is worse. You’re first in family related stress, 10th in health-related issues and seventh in money-induced stress. If you seek bliss, up and move across the border to Utah, America’s least-stressful state, per the study. And if you’re Nevada Gov. Steve Sisolak (D), pop a valium and hope your opponents don’t see this story.
Georgia’s House Economic Development & Tourism Committee has advanced a bill that would permit betting on professional and collegiate sports in the Peach State. Nine online skins are at stake, taxed at 20% However, it faces long odds in both the full chamber—led by the aptly named Rep Randy Nix (R)—and in the state Senate, which recently voted down betting on horse racing, fer crissakes.
