{"id":6906,"date":"2011-06-10T12:48:00","date_gmt":"2011-06-10T20:48:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/?p=6906"},"modified":"2021-07-13T05:51:15","modified_gmt":"2021-07-13T13:51:15","slug":"those-evil-casinos-lost-in-yonkers-found-in-bethlehem","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/those-evil-casinos-lost-in-yonkers-found-in-bethlehem\/","title":{"rendered":"Those evil casinos; Lost in Yonkers; Found in Bethlehem"},"content":{"rendered":"

Floating down the river of DeNile, Sharron Angle<\/strong> says a senatorial seat that was rightfully hers was filched by “the casinos,” among other malefactors. Of course, this is the same woman who would have subtracted CityCenter<\/strong> from the local tax base and thrown its employees onto the dole, arguing that it should have been aborted in mid-construction (because it just would have gone bankrupt anyway, Angle contended). So we’re not dealing with someone who’s got all her ponies on one string, are we?<\/p>\n

\"\"Speaking of tax bases<\/strong>, the municipality otherwise known as Yonkers<\/strong> has to decide how much it’s worth to keep Yonkers Raceway<\/strong> propped up. The latter projects spending $40 million to add 350 VLTs — bringing its inventory to 5,850 — and 400 table games (craps, sic bo, baccarat). In return, it would like tax incentives<\/a>. Seems reasonable. But here’s the rub: Business isn’t expected to be any better once the expansion is finished. It’s a defensive measure against Genting Bhd<\/strong>‘s nearby Aqueduct<\/strong> project. Or, as Raceway General Manager Bob Galtiero<\/strong> candidly put it, “I don’t know that we’re going to get a lot more people. We’re hoping to keep the people we have<\/em>.” One can understand the appeal of tax breaks when they’re meant to grow business (as is the case with Revel<\/strong>, down in Atlantic City<\/strong>). But it’s a tougher call when the explicit objective is just to keep running in place.<\/p>\n

Playing favorites to the end<\/strong>, the state senators of Maine<\/strong>, ixnayed a casino proposal for Lewiston<\/strong> but approved a pair of racinos. All is not lost for Lewiston, which gets a shot with the electorate in November. As for the racinos, it was a futile gesture on the part of the Lege, as Gov. Paul LePage<\/strong> already intends to veto them and there aren’t enough votes<\/a> for an override. See ya at the ballot box, guys.<\/p>\n

\"\"The finish line<\/strong> is finally in sight for long-in-progress Sands Bethlehem<\/strong>. If parent Las Vegas Sands<\/strong> is able to maintain its timetable (which would admittedly be an historic first), the mandated retail mall and event center could be finished by mid-February<\/a>. Shame on property President Robert DeSalvio<\/strong> for reiterating that the new hotel would still be unfinished if Pennsylvania<\/strong> hadn’t legalized table games. Sands has sulked, pouted and dragged its feet on this project — and table games were never part of the deal to which it agreed. CEO Sheldon Adelson<\/strong> wanted into Pennsylvania so badly that he promised a number of bells and whistles that have proven dearly expensive. But using the unfinished hotel as a carrot to extract table games from the legislature showed poor corporate citizenship on Sands’ part. Finishing the hotel was a contractual requirement. Blowing $743 million on the first phases of the megaresort … now that<\/em> was a choice.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Floating down the river of DeNile, Sharron Angle says a senatorial seat that was rightfully hers was filched by “the casinos,” among other malefactors. Of course, this is the same woman who would have subtracted CityCenter from the local tax … 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":[23,56,28,26,147,101,95,33,111,12,31,9,19],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6906"}],"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=6906"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6906\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29842,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6906\/revisions\/29842"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6906"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6906"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6906"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}