Aqueduct plan thrown for a loop

In the race to define the future of thoroughbred horse racing in New York State and at-the-track gaming at the Aqueduct track in Ozone Park, the horses are changing, and running in different directions.
Governor Eliot Spitzer had set an October 15 deadline for bids to operate a gaming facility at Aqueduct, which would include 4,500 Video Lottery Terminals (VLT).
Despite a lack of clarity as to whether the winner would have to build the facility or lease it from the state, two groups dropped out of the running and seven groups have submitted proposals, including a last-minute bid by the Native American Shinnecock tribe from eastern Long Island.
“Whoa,” says the State Senate leadership. On Tuesday, October 16, Majority Leader Joe Bruno unveiled a report on a plan to “reinvigorate the thoroughbred racing industry” by creating “an independent, state-controlled umbrella corporation which would oversee and guide” both racing and gaming at the state-controlled tracks at Saratoga, Belmont and Aqueduct.
“After a number of public hearings across the state, it’s clear that there will have to be major changes to the governor’s proposal,” Bruno said.
The report follows four public hearings by the Senate Racing, Gaming and Wagering Committee, during which Spitzer’s plan was roundly criticized.
Citing “ambiguity regarding payment of local property taxes,” Republican senators on the committee insisted that the corporation was needed.
The senate proposal creates the “Racing, Gaming and Equine Sports Development Corporation” would include current members of the NYRA Oversight Board, and representatives of the racing, gaming and commercial development industries, up to 11 members.
They would be “authorized to contract with bidders… in all aspects of racing and gaming, including VLTs” according to the report, which also said that the new body would own the land and “guide the management” of improvement and development.
This proposal lies athwart of Spitzer’s plan to control relations between NYRA and any gaming operator through an executive-branch entity. The current oversight committee has no Spitzer appointees.
As if that weren’t enough to muddy the field, it has been reported that the New York State Commission on Investigation, is in receipt of an 8-page complaint alleging “a giant conspiracy” in Spitzer’s award of another 30-year racing franchise to NYRA, and that the process has been rigged to award gaming to Excelsior Racing Associates, a group which includes Spitzer pals.
Steven Greenberg, spokesperson for the commission would only say that “as a matter of policy, the commission does not comment on any investigation which it may, or may not, be conducting.”
In fact, Excelsior Racing Associates, which was linked to Spitzer and Empire Racing Associates, which had been linked to Bruno, both dropped out of the process and did not submit bids for the gaming facility.
The bidders included the Seneca Gaming Corp. and a group including Mohegan Sun, two Native-American casino operators, among other gaming companies.
The Shinnecock proposal would go further than any idea thus far - a $1.4 billion mini-Las Vegas - to include a 1,200-room hotel and full-fledged casino with 350 card tables and over 10,000 VLTs. The casino floor would be much larger than a football field.
Even though the Shinnecocks are not an “official” tribe for the purposes of opening a casino, they have been urging the U.S. Department of the Interior to recognize them, and are awaiting a judge’s decision on their bid to open a casino on their reservation near the Hamptons on Long Island’s south fork.
None of that seems to matter to Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg or Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver. Both have expressed nearly identical and implacable opposition to casinos within New York City. Both suggested that in urban areas where casino gambling exists, “If you walk around” within a short distance of the casinos, the evidence shows that they are bad for the community.
Saying that he has “always thought that gambling tends to be regressive,” Bloomberg declared he has, “not exactly been in favor of using it as an economic development model. It doesn’t seem to work.”
Silver said, “I don’t believe the benefits of casino gambling in a city like New York will outweigh the social ills it creates.”
Despite claims that the Shinnecock plan would create 12,000 permanent jobs and add $400 million to the local economy, legislators are unmoved.
“I am unalterably opposed to (VLTs) which are no better than ‘video crack’” said Senator Frank Padavan, adding “the idea of a full-blown casino in Queens is repugnant.”
“If the Shinnecocks want a casino, let them get certified and open one on their homeland,” Padavan said.