Casinos in the United States are centered in Las Vegas, Atlantic City and Chicago. There was recent news that the first ever casino of New York City is to open soon – maybe even as early as 2011. This had caused a big flurry among the game loving people of the City. Till now the New York City’s gambling was mostly carried out on cruise ships that dock near the city. Or else people would drive out to other parts of the state where there are casinos. Hence the anticipation had built up when the bid was called for.
Authorization Of New York City’s First
There were five odd companies which participated in the bid for the casino. Most of these were race track owners because in New York state most casinos are placed along with the race tracks. The first casino of New York City is supposed to have been opened at Aqueduct Racetrack in Queens. Aqueduct Entertainment won the bid after the deciding committee voted. The casino was going to be basically a slot machines casino and they were planning to have more than 4000 slot machines.
Criticism Regarding Aqueduct Racetrack Casino
A very critical report of about 300 pages was released by the State Inspector General in October 2010 which has been very damaging for the Aqueduct Casino. The report criticizes many Democrat senators too and especially points fingers at State Senator John Sampson. According to the report Sampson manipulated the selection of who is to build the City’s first casino. The report states that Aqueduct marshaled funds to get the bid in their favor and as such the entire process of selection of the best bidder was tainted. The Inspector General also said that based on the findings of the report he was referring the finding to both federal and state prosecutors to take necessary action. However chief accused Senator Sampson did not directly make any statements to contradict the accusation. Instead he talked of the selection process to lack proper structure and process indicating that the reason for the problematic selection is not any favoritism. The report has also stated that the Governor and the State Lottery office considered Aqueduct’s bid for the casino to be unacceptable. The Inspector General accused the senators involved to have received donations for their campaign from Aqueduct. It was basically a story of corruption and favoritism.
In short, the entire activity has blown up in the faces of the democrats and has given ample ammunition to the republicans to wage a fight. Whether a casino will finally come up in New York City or not is thus debatable until this issue is settled. The opening of such a casino was supposed to have brought into the state treasury at least Dollars 1.5 million in funds on a daily basis. The casino would have also pumped a great deal of money into the horserace business. Unfortunately, the allegations mean all this will have to wait. Meanwhile the city’s people still can have the casino experience by visiting the many cruise ship docks there which have casinos onboard.