Three New Casinos Selected For New York State
The New York State regulatory entity, The Gaming Facility Location Board, has announced its preferred potential locations for the building of three new casinos in the state.
Lobbying for the locations has been fierce as cash strapped communities were keen to have their sites chosen, with the hope of new income streams becoming available along with the new job creation that the building of commercial operations of this size will bring.
The County sites chosen by the board are Schenectady, Seneca and Sullivan.
There had been some discussion that a fourth license would be issued, but the board declined to take up this opportunity, being of the belief that three new sites would be more than enough to satisfy existing consumer demand.
Details Of The Three New Sites
Schenectady city will be the home of the new Rivers Casino & Resort located at Mohawk Harbour. The casino will form part of a larger redevelopment project which is intended to regenerate a riverfront site that has fallen out of favour. The whole project comes with a $300 million price tag, and will feature a hotel; restaurant; as well as casino gaming facilities for 1,100 slots machines and 66 gaming tables.
The tiny town of Tyre in Seneca County has been chosen with its associated Lago Resort and Casino proposal. The $425 million project will be quite sizable, with space allocated for 2,000 slots machines.
The Sullivan County town of Thompson rounds out the announcements, with the Montreign Resort Casino project getting the nod for that area. The resort comes in at a price of $630 million and will feature an 18 storey casino and hotel complex, along with indoor waterpark and meeting spaces.
The three winning casino bids are projected to create at least 3,200 full time jobs for the state, as well as generate $265 million in revenue, along with $136 million for licensing fees.
The Rest Of The Bids
In total there were 16 bids for the three casino licenses in this latest round of opportunity, and the winning bids were awarded due to their location and a desire to spread the projects geographically in the overall interest of New York State.
A fourth license was given due consideration by the board for the location of Orange County, which alone had received six of the 16 competing bids, but the board decided not to proceed with a casino in that county due to environmental and financial concerns.
