What Jim Murren and Sheldon Adelson couldn’t do, New York state Sen. James Skoufis (D) just might. With four upstate casinos still closed and the state budget pummeled by the economic effects of Coronavirus, Skoufis is proposing that the state leapfrog three years ahead and sell two New York City casino licenses for $500 million apiece. (If Osaka is worth $10 billion, surely the Big Apple warrants at least a half-million billion.) That’s little comfort to casino employees upstate, who wouldn’t be helped by Skoufis’ pitch. “There are so many employees that are living hand-to-mouth, and it doesn’t seem like anyone cares,” said George Bird, a table games dealer at Rivers Casino. One of his pit bosses, Tom McOwen, got a little carried away and proclaimed, “Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness is written in our constitution. I feel like that’s being impeded upon right now.” (A constitutional right to employment? Wouldn’t that be called ‘socialism’?)
Back to Skoufis. “The casinos themselves, their openings, would not be accelerated. They would still open, as the schedule stands now, in 2023. But we would accelerate the licensing payments that are associated,” he told Casino.org. Indeed, if an Adelson broke ground today, he’d be unlikely to open much before 2023 anyway. Even if it meant waiting three years to convert Empire City Casino in Yonkers to full Class III status, MGM Resorts International might consider it a bargain. It has signaled that $500 million for the privilege is A-OK and it would be spared the expense of building a casino from scratch.
