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Casinos Eyed to Enhance Nassau County Finances

Posted on May 14th, 2011

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Like most other cities and states currently experiencing severe financial woes, Nassau County—formerly considered as one of the richest counties in New York—believes that a “world-class sports-entertainment destination center”, which includes a casino, can be a reliable and effective source of revenue. County executive and Republican Edward Mangano recently announced plans for a racetrack casino construction, as well as the future operations of an ice hockey arena. The proposals were hatched after the state reached a decision stating that Mangano failed to balance the county’s budget of $2.6 billion. Consequently, the state intervened in January and assigned the Nassau Interim Finance Authority to manage the county’s finances.

According to US and state laws, in order to jumpstart activities for both establishments’ construction, the project must first be approved by voters. To this effect, a referendum has already been scheduled to be conducted come August 1 of the current year. During the referendum, voters shall need to approve plans to borrow amounts of $350 million for the Veterans’ Memorial Coliseum, and another $50 million for a minor league ballpark. However, the referendum shall only be the first stage the project will need to go through. State approval shall also be required. Mangano said that the gaming establishment shall be built at Belmont Park Raceway. The county has identified the Shinnecock Indian Nation, a tribe based in Long Island, to own and operate the casino. According to Shinnecock spokeswoman Bevy Jensen, the tribe has been scouting for possible locations of new casinos and they have considered Nassau and Suffolk counties as potential gaming venues. At present, no final word has been received from the tribe on whether they accept the county’s offer or not.

Although the new casino is expected to bring competition for the already existing Aqueduct racetrack and its 4,525 video lottery machines, Fitch Ratings analyst Michael Paladino is confident that Aqueduct can hold its own. He said that Aqueduct, scheduled to begin its operations this summer, will have the advantage of being first to open and offer its services. Also, Aqueduct shall be managed by Genting New York, which is under the umbrella of Malaysia’s Genting, considered to be a formidable non-US based gaming company. Meanwhile, the other half of Mangano’s proposal, the ice hockey arena, serves as Plan B in order to maintain Long Island’s sole professional hockey team, The Islanders.

Plan A refers to an earlier proposal, the brainchild of Democrat Tom Suozzi, to modernize the arena. The original proposal was projected to cost $3.8 billion. According to Suozzi, the $3.8 billion needed for the sports facility shall be sourced from islanders who will be asked and persuaded to invest their money on the county project. However, due to economic upheaval and zoning problems, the state did not look favorably upon the proposal. At present, Veterans’ Memorial Coliseum is where players and residents go to. Although the coliseum is centrally-located and in demand, one cannot argue that due to its age, the Coliseum needs renovation and refurbishment

Mangano’s Plan B, on the other hand, is different from Suozzi’s approach. Mangano said that, this time, Islanders would dish out “a share” for every dollar to be earned by the arena. If things work out as planned, this strategy—combined with sales tax to be imposed on the casino and the arena—shall be able to raise an amount that will be higher than the projected cost needed to construct the facilities. Apart from these, Mangano also highlighted that both projects will be able to reap other positive things for the county’s local economy. He said that the casino and sports arena construction shall provide employment for residents, as well as fuel the county’s finances. Charles Wang, owner of the Islander team, expressed his confidence that the arena project will be fully realized; thus, providing a home base for the team.

However, the Nassau Interim Finance Authority expressed concerned about Mangano’s proposal. Pending the release of the county’s budget for 2011 and 2012, the former issued a request to be provided with information about the new plan. According to the Authority, the new plan needs to be analyzed with the current economic problems in mind. Other factors such as employee wage freeze and services reduction should also be considered.