Biz leaders ‘full court pressing’ expansion of
Empire City to add arena, hotel, & mobile betting
BY ALEX MITCHELL
It’s a “no brainer” to expand
MGM Resorts’ Empire City Casino
and raceway to include a hotel,a
10,000 seat convention center, mobile
sports betting and full table
games, business leaders in the
Bronx and Westchester strongly
argue.
Members of those commerce
and labor communities, who have
formed an alliance titled A Sure
Bet for New York’s Future went all
in for their cause during a virtual
press conference on Friday afternoon
– one which urged New York
state to include a full scale license
for the Yonkers casino in its upcoming
budget.
Labor, education and other local
leaders joined Lisa Sorin of the
Bronx Chamber of Commerce in
addition to former assemblyman
and current Business Council of
Westchester Chief Operating Offi
cer, John Ravitz who called this
movement a “united Bronx and
Westchester project.”
“It means jobs, it means economic
development, it means a
great start to recovery… the public,
private, and labor sectors are
all in lockstep to make this happen,”
Ravitz added, also saying
there will be a “full court press”
in upcoming days to get Empire
City new credentials from Albany.
Sorin began applying that
pressure by penning a letter to all
Bronx delegates at a state level, zeroing
in on the mobile sports betting
component of the potential
expansion, what she called “a perfect
union” for Empire City as its
existing facility would more than
suffi ce for the addition.
“Any mobile sports betting
initiative put in place by the state
must also ensure that MGM Resorts,
with one of the top three
mobile sports betting platforms
in the country, has a path to participate…
it is imperative that
downstate full gaming casino licenses
be opened immediately to
allow MGM Resorts to apply for a
license for Empire City Casino,”
she wrote.
Specifi cally, the alliance estimates
the casino’s expansion to
bring in 13,000 jobs and $1 billion
in local revenue to an area fi nancially
ravished by the pandemic,
money which the Ravitz says New
York state will see almost immediately.
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A man counts money after winning while playing the slot machines at the Empire City Casino in Yonkers,
New York June 23, 2009. The 5,300 slot machines of the casino are a source of revenue for the state of New
York which also wants to turn Long Island’s Aqueduct Racetrack into a “racino” by adding thousands of slots.
A growing number of U.S. states are considering legalizing slots to try to generate revenue to plug budget
gaps, even as the recession has hurt the country’s gaming industry. Picture taken June 23. REUTERS/Lucas
Jackson (UNITED STATES BUSINESS SOCIETY) REUTERS/Lucas Jackson (UNITED STATES BUSINESS SOCIETY)
Sorin also cited that 300 Bronx
residents are already employed
at Empire City and that number
could quadruple under the new license,
reiterating what economic
relief would likely come to the region.
As the highest tax paying entity
in Yonkers, this project would
also serve as an “unbelievable”
tax revenue source, she added.
“We haven’t met anyone opposed
to this,” Sorin said.
In the midst of this push, the
alliance, which consists of over
50 local organizations and several
religious institutions also announced
a new co-chair on Friday,
Bronx Overall Economic Development
Corporation president, Marlene
Cintron.
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