Is It a Good Time for Proposed Governors Island Casino?

In a recent radio interview Mayoral Candidate, Andrew Yang revealed his plan to launch a brand-new land-based casino on the territory of Governors Island, to boost the state’s revenue which is will a rather difficult task. Mr. Yang also believes that the enterprise will be able to generate a huge amount of revenue, which will positively influence the state’s recovery process.

The Mayoral candidate who also ran for president the previous year claimed that such a casino will provide so much money that he even declared that this “would be bananas”. Governors Island lays on a 172-acre space and was previously a military and Coast Guard facility in the New York Harbor region, and it is currently home to several businesses, a park, and National Monument.

Man of Many Ideas

Yang also stated in his interview that what makes it even better is the fact that much of the Governors Island territory is still unused, meaning that there is plenty of room for a brick-and-mortar casino. The former entrepreneur added that the city must always look for ways to attract tourists to the five boroughs. According to his plan, such a casino would profit a basic income of around US$1,000,000,000, which can be used for payments to the city’s most underprivileged residents.

Obstacles

Unfortunately for Mr. Yang’s bold proposal, the launch of such a casino on the territory of Governors Island will not be easy, since there is a casino ban on the island with a 2003 deed restriction issued by the federal government. Then, there are the possibilities of already existing plans for the currently unused acres of space.

According to the Chair of the Governors Island Trust, Alicia Glen, there are already projects under development for the future of the island. For example, a project of a mixed-use campus used for educational and commercial campaigns centered around climate change and sustainability. Another thing Glen added was that such gambling facilities are prohibited by the 2003 deed, and a casino would not fit well in the plans for the island.

Yang’s spokesman, Chris Coffey insisted that Mr. Yang’s proposal was rather an idea and not a full-planned project since the Mayoral candidate is always coming up with new ideas to help improve the city. Additionally, in his statement he described that Andrew is a believer in community-driven development projects, meaning that his camp will not insist on the project unless stakeholders supported the casino project.

NY Commercial Casino Expansion

After years of discussions and negotiations for almost a decade, Senator James Skoufis admitted that issuing new commercial casino licenses will greatly help the state to overcome the financial difficulties. The next part of the expansion is in 2023 when 3 commercial casino licenses are expected to be issued to big-name gaming operators, which will even the number of tribal and commercial casinos.

NY lawmakers are still working on accelerating such licenses for them to being issued as early as possible in 2020 or at the beginning of 2021. Currently, two operators awaiting the expansion are the Empire City Casino and Resorts World New York City.

Source: Anuta, Joe. “Yang proposes casino on Governors Island to boost city recovery”, PoliticoNewYork, January 19, 2021