Odds Could Be Against Casino Opponents - City Limits Magazine ...

Rosedale ? Slot machine players come out in the thousands to Genting's Resorts World New York casino at the Aqueduct racetrack every day. Individually, they each square off against one of thousands of gaming machines, each row sporting different names such as 50 Lions, Carnival of Mystery and Wall Street Winners, although the continual button-pressing game play is common among them all. Most players tap their buttons without expression, hoping to hit the jackpot with each spin. They're locked in a fight against the odds and, of course, on a normal day, most of them will not come out winners.

Indeed, thus far, the new racino seems wildly profitable, so much so that Gov. Cuomo sees it as just the beginning of the development of new gambling and entertainment opportunities at Aqueduct.

In other areas of the country where full-scale gambling has been considered, a battle has broken out over benefits versus cost. If that same fight is taken up here, attention is likely to focus less on whether social costs of gambling exist than whether the positive financial impact of gambling outweighs those social concerns.

And in that contest, casino opponents may face prospects no better than the average gambler who visits the quasi-casino that already exists in Queens.

Revenues high and growing

The benefits of gambling to New York are obvious and easy to quantify. All the numbers and statistics making headlines at the moment point to the Racino being a boon for all New Yorkers. Despite not opening until the tail end of October, the Aqueduct Racino brought in $90 million in revenues for the state in 2011, most of which went toward education. And according to Stefan Friedman, managing director at consulting firm SKDKnickerbocker, which represents Genting, the revenues are expected to remain impressive even after the Racino's "novelty factor" wears off; Genting expects to bring in $300 million to $400 million for the state each year, not including the profits they'll keep for themselves.

Perhaps even more powerful are the estimates of what New York is missing by restricting what its gaming facilities can offer. Friedman says $3 billion to $5 billion in entertainment spending leaves New York each year, bound for full casinos (which unlike Racinos have live dealers and table games) elsewhere.

"Gaming is here," he says. "There are dollars going out of state right now, and look, we love our friends in New Jersey and Connecticut, but we don't love them that much to be giving away revenues to them at a time when frankly, every year, there are budget deficits. Every year, we've been seeing stagnant employment."

So it's no wonder Cuomo, at the helm of a state that's still very strapped for cash, has hopped on the casino bandwagon: It looks like free money for the state that doesn't involve raising taxes, it creates lucrative business for the private sector and, maybe the most important concern in this economy, it appears to be a great source for job creation. Still, some say there is more to the picture.

"Typically, [upon the opening of a new casino] the economic studies find a boost in local revenues as well as business, an increase in a number of jobs and a bunch of things like that. The other side of the coin is harder to measure," says David Just, associate professor of economics at Cornell, referring to the social costs that often accompany casinos. "That's why it's really hard to argue against these things."

Tall order for opponents

Source: http://www.citylimits.org/news/articles/4520/odds-could-be-against-casino-opponents

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