Predatory Gambling has destroyed communities across the country and across the globe.
Ignoring the experience elsewhere.....where has Predatory Gambling created 'ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT'?
Sullivan County on casinos: We're not going to sit around and let someone else win the war
Sullivan County is battling back against a possible casino in Orange - or anywhere else that could take the long-sought prize it says it deserves.
The county that's fought for a casino for nearly half a century is launching a three pronged attack - on the business, government and economic development fronts - to corner the market on the up to two casinos allowed in the Catskills/Hudson Valley region.
“It's a flank system,” says Sullivan County Partnership for Economic Development President Marc Baez. “If we come together, we can win the war.”
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The county's economic development arm, the Industrial Development Agency, just hired the lobbying firm of Wilson, Elsner, Moskowitz, Edelman and Dicker to fight for its casino interests in Albany, “and all economic development in Sullivan,” says IDA Chairman Ira Steingart, who noted it's a long term deal for up to $100,000.
Sullivan's business community - led by hotel and restaurant owner Randy Resnick, who fought to get the November casino referendum passed, is mobilizing its forces.
“We're really concerned about an Orange casino,” said Resnick, whose Bernie's Holiday Restaurant and Sullivan hotel in Rock Hill hosted rallies to pass the referendum. “The legislation was written for us, not them. We can't let these guys in at the 11th hour.”
And Legislature Chairman Scott Samuelson says Sullivan political leaders will work to remind Albany leaders why the legislation allowing up to two casinos in the Catskills was written.
“To bring economic development upstate, to us,” he says, noting that several county officials will be in Albany Tuesday to get that message across.
They'll also stress that Sullivan, with its long history of now faded hotels, is the perfect spot for new casino resorts.
“To take the old sites and make them new again,” says Baez. “It's an adaptive use and that's exactly what we're supposed to do. That's huge. And the jobs mean a lot more to Sullivan than Orange.”
The one site in Orange that's been most prominently mentioned - vacant land near Woodbury Common - would be the exact opposite of Sullivan's proposed casino resorts, which would mostly be built on the sites of former resorts.
“Orange County would just have a stand alone casino,” says Resnick. “Ours would be family resorts that would attract all sorts of tourists.”
But this new casino push, which was formalized late last week during a meeting that included casino developers, isn't just for the minimum one casino allowed in the Hudson Valley/Catskills region - of four allowed upstate. Since the legislation allows up to two in one region - and that region has been widely presumed to be the Catskills - Sullivan wants both.
“From a historical perspective, for tourism, for economic clustering, we think two makes sense and we're going to make that happen,” said Baez. “This is Sullivan's signature issue and we're not going to sit around and let someone else win the war.”
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