Massachusetts: Why 5 year ban made sense

New York State ranks among the leaders of fiscal mismanagement and ethically challenged, having ignored the community degradation caused by Gambling Addiction.

The lawmaker to lobbyist revolving door highlights why the 5 year ban in Massachusetts made great sense to avoid rewarding Beacon Hill with employment options.


Aqueduct opens VLT casino
By Tom Precious
Bloodhorse

Derided by addiction treatment experts as overkill in a state with a growing reliance on gambling, the new VLT casino is seen as a financial life raft for the Thoroughbred industry.

"Increased purses will help bring more top owners, trainers, and horses to our tracks, create larger fields for our customers to wager on, and generate higher handle for our races,'' said Charles Hayward, president of the New York Racing Association, which operates Aqueduct, Belmont, and Saratoga. [Taxpayer funded bailouts for the failing racing industry should sound alarm bells.]

The Malaysian-owned company, according to state lobbying records, is spending $125,000 a month on a "who's who" of politically wired lobbying firms at the state Capitol. The firm has made no secret of its desire to turn the new Aqueduct facility into a full-fledged casino with table games and other betting now blocked by the state constitution.

A recent NYRA document submitted to an oversight panel shows the optimism. In 2012, based on $380 projected win per machine from 5,000 VLTs that will be fully operational in the months ahead, NYRA is projecting it will receive $28 million for its capital fund and $21 million in operating proceeds as revenue-sharing from the Genting casino.

NYRA also projects $44.8 million in additional purse money in 2012 driven from the machines, and an extra $6.9 million for the Thoroughbred breeding fund.

NYRA still owes Genting $25 million it received to help with cash-flow issues; the money will be repaid by allocating 25% of capital and operating funds. Hayward expects the loan to be repaid in about two-and-a-half years.

With its location in Queens and access to metropolitan New York, the Aqueduct casino is expected to eat into business at casinos in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Connecticut, as well as Empire City at Yonkers Raceway in New York. The Aqueduct casino will be open 20 hours a day and is the only NYRA track approved for casino operations.

Meanwhile, Genting has retainers worth $1.5 million this year with lobbyists, some of whom specialize in close relations with Democrats who run the Assembly or Republicans in control of the Senate. The firm even gave pay hikes over the summer to several of the lobbyists, whose ranks include well-known Albany representatives as Patricia Lynch, Brian Meara, John Cordo. and Nick Spano, a former state senator.

The lobbying and public affairs firms, not including what Genting is paying its own in-house lobbying staff, each earn between $25,000 and $30,000 per month.