The NY Gaming Facility Location Board, in the interest of transparency and in response to pressure from the unhappy people who were left out of the final selections, released it's entire December 2014 report to the public last week. The volume of information and the number of pages in the report are enough to put most skeptics off but if you are up to wading through its 785 pages or if you need a good sleep aide for the next month or two, here's the link!
Honestly I can only admit to having perused a few sections, especially those that have to do with the Orange County proposals. These were the proposals that would have put a casino within a stone's throw of New York City - by far the most lucrative proposals in terms of generating revenue and taxes. Unfortunately, in the Board's reasoning, these proposals met with too much local dissatisfaction and presented insurmountable traffic issues. If I were being cynical I'd say, "DUH!!!" since a lot of traffic = a lot of people = a lot of money = a lot of taxes, but now I know the powers that be in New York are not looking in the direction of a successful, viable enterprise.
The Board did open up the process for more proposals in the Southern Tier region, a region which only received three lukewarm proposals in the first go around. Placing a casino closer to Binghamtom will do little more than encourage a slew of college students to "invest" their government checks in a effort to double up before they pay their tuition. Without a huge IBM presence, as there was many years ago, the area will remain depressed, casino or no casino.
When the new Montreign Resort Casino opens in Sullivan County (read Catskills!) sometime in 2016 if we are lucky, I will take a ride there some sunny summer day to check the place out.
My wife and I will throw a few bucks around the craps tables and the blackjack tables, I'll play some poker if they are smart enough to have a poker room, and we'll have something to eat before we leave. I predict that we will not return there (since it is a 3+ hour drive!) regularly. I doubt that we will even visit the others.
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