Comments on: Off the Reservation: The Lighthouse Project Casino

By: TOM

TOM — Thu, 22 Jul 2010 17:26:00 +0000

Great idea by Mangano. Nassau County will significantly profit from a casino. It should be built adjoining a new coliseum, thereby creating a better Lighthouse project than what was originally proposed.

By: Jed Morey

Jed Morey — Wed, 05 May 2010 20:58:49 +0000

Random bystander – check out this piece done by Chris Twarowski last year showing how the Suozzi administration gambled our finances and lost.
http://www.longislandpress.com/2009/10/15/nassaus-balancing-act/

By: Ray

Ray — Wed, 05 May 2010 20:34:27 +0000

First off may be pwerful but he is the biggest bloodsucker in the State…a poster boy for the most disfunctional legislature in all 50 states. Secondly, we wouldn’t be in this mess if his democratic buddy mario, as governor, years ago hadn’t forced a bill through the assembly that allowed the State to divert Lottery receipts from a strickly educational fund to the State’s general Fund. Once that was done, it paved the way for the State to dip their hands in everyone’s pockets including OTB and the NYRA to balance the legally mandated State budget.

Also if you think one casino will have a lasting effect on existing casinos in adjoining states, you’re dreaming. It’s a great idea by Mangano to generate something new to help close nassau’s budget gap, however if you think the infrastructure will dramatically improve you’re also dreaming. When casinos opened in Atlantic City, it’s taken a lifetime to alleviate the surrounding blight in neighborhoods adjacent to casinos. The State is broke and will historically siphon revenue from the County to be used to subsidise upstate communities as it has always done.

A better mousetrap would be to do the casino deal but not there. The old Cerro wire site is no doubt big enough to handle a hotel/casino without a huge adjustment to the existing infrastructure. The site is adjacent to the LIE and Northern State parkways and it’s a no brainer to build an additional RR stop at the site on the Huntington line. The citizen’s organization that opposes a mall on the cerro site already has a Hyatt type hotel listed as an alternative on their own website.

Have Wang, the TOH, and the County agree to build some version of the lighthouse project…..put a casino/hotel on the cerro wire site (or a similar adjacent LIE property) and in one fell swoop, the County has killed two birds with one stone

By: random bystander

random bystander — Wed, 05 May 2010 18:38:43 +0000

I don’t understand the “giant sack of financial meatballs” reference.

By: Jed Morey

Jed Morey — Sat, 01 May 2010 14:34:05 +0000

Eddy,
You’re correct in that NYRA emerged from bankruptcy, but they are still sustaining heavy losses and NYCOTB is currently reorganizing. Thank you for clarifying that. It is also true that the volume of betting would be enough to sustain profitability in the OTB’s if the state didn’t have its hands in every OTB pocket. To further the conclusion on this article, a casino on this property would not only crush the local OTB regions, it would seriously compromise Belmont and Aqueduct racetracks if not put them out entirely.

By: eddy

eddy — Thu, 29 Apr 2010 18:57:15 +0000

NYRA is not in bankruptcy pal, NYCOTB is. And the reasons for why they can’t make money has nothing to do with gambling. There is over a Billion dollars that flow through NYRA and NYCOTB each year, the problem is that everyone fights for the same dollar on NYRA’s product and everyone takes a piece of the pie.
NYRA has been waiting 9 years for the state gov’t to choose a VLT operator…don’t get your hopes up if you think this will happen anytime in the near future