{"id":11542,"date":"2013-09-16T13:05:45","date_gmt":"2013-09-16T21:05:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/?p=11542"},"modified":"2013-09-16T13:05:45","modified_gmt":"2013-09-16T21:05:45","slug":"dangerous-complacency-in-new-york","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/dangerous-complacency-in-new-york\/","title":{"rendered":"Dangerous complacency in New York"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Casino advocates and New York State<\/strong> Gov. Andrew Cuomo<\/strong> (D) are making a risky wager regarding November’s ballot question that would dramatically expand gambling in upstate New York. They’re playing it cool, keeping most of their chips off the table<\/a>. Cuomo is feigning neutrality on the issue rather than using the bully pulpit of his office to advocate for what is, after all, his baby. Although the casino question enjoys a large plurality of support, backers should look to Hard Rock International<\/strong>‘s recent ejection from West Springfield<\/strong>, Massachusetts<\/strong>, and think twice about chilling out.<\/p>\n

If advocates have<\/strong> a war chest upon which they’re sitting, opponents have little money but considerable motivation. They’re going to try and fight an insurgency driven by social media. They’re also deploying the support of non-profits like the Institute for American Values<\/strong> (is gambling an un-American value?), which was sufficiently het up about Empire State casinos that it even e-mailed S&G<\/em>. It balefully accuses casinos of “draining wealth from people in the lower ranks of the income distribution, and contributing to economic inequality<\/em>.”<\/p>\n

Any number of investors could be — but aren’t — weighing in to counter that message. At least six heavyweights are showing an interest in an upstate casino, including Las Vegas Sands<\/strong>, Foxwoods Resort Casino<\/strong>, MGM Resorts International<\/strong>, Boyd Gaming<\/strong> and\"\"penniless Caesars Entertainment<\/strong>. Where is Cuomo in all of this? Well, he’s sure as hell not been out on the hustings for a constitutional amendment that is largely is his creation. Since VLT parlors will be added, irrespective of the outcome, perhaps the governor thinks he has done his job.<\/p>\n

\"\"Given the high media profile<\/a> and colorful nature of the New York City<\/strong> mayoral race, turnout downstate is expected to far outpoll that in the “cow counties.” If that’s the case, a casino bill that doesn’t give the Big Apple a bite of anything is likely to draw more than a few “nays.” In fact, NYC is cut out of the action for seven years, with a Long Island<\/strong> VLT joint being a cold form of comfort. “But an ad campaign there would cost millions of dollars,” worry supporters. Well, so would getting cut out of the action entirely. Better you should spend some of that $20 million you’ve got socked away for ad buys.<\/p>\n

And Cuomo? “We need somebody talking in New York City,” says state Sen. John J. Bonacic<\/strong> (R) and that somebody ought to be the main man from Albany<\/strong> — and pronto.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Casino advocates and New York State Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) are making a risky wager regarding November’s ballot question that would dramatically expand gambling in upstate New York. They’re playing it cool, keeping most of their chips off the table. … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[60,28,26,166,165,7,112,11,33,12],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11542"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11542"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11542\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11544,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11542\/revisions\/11544"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11542"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11542"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11542"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}