Kathy Hochul has vetoed a bill that would’ve sped up the process for downstate casino licensing. She received the bill on Nov. 15 and nixed it one week later. Hochul stated in her veto memo that she rejected the bill because she felt it would be unfair to depart from the original rules, according to the New York Post.
Changing the rules partway through the process might “have the impact of helping certain bidders and hurting others,” she wrote.
The governor’s decision is a blow to Sen. Joseph Addabbo, who co-sponsored the bill and has been a vocal proponent of speeding up the licensing process. He believes that the license recipients should be chosen by the end of next year.
Sen. Addabbo is also the driving force behind the push for New York online casinos. Part of his motivation for the license acceleration bill is that Gov. Hochul has said she will not discuss that possibility until the licensing issue is out of the way.
Why NY lawmakers believed the casino licensing speed-up bill was necessary
In 2022, Hochul included in the state budget up to three new casino license holders in southern (“downstate”) New York. In January 2023, the state’s Gaming Facility Location Board (GFLB) put out a call for licensing applications.
Since that call, the GFLB has begun fielding applicants’ questions, but the formal application process still hasn’t even begun, two years in.
The snails’ pace at which the GFLB has been moving is part of what spurred Abbado to submit his bill earlier this year.
Originally, it called for the GFLB to award licenses by March 2025. That would have required the application period to open in July.
However, the final version of the bill that went to Hochul’s desk after some revisions set an August 2025 application deadline with license holder selection by December 2025, with the possibility of extending the deadline by 30 days.
Making the application process quicker expedites the benefits lawmakers intended for the three downstate casinos:
- Bring a windfall of tax revenue the state could use to improve its Metropolitan Transportation Authority and education system
- Boost downstate economies
The slower that state regulators move on licensing, the longer the state and local municipalities will have to wait for casinos’ economic benefits.
What’s next for New York’s downstate casinos?
For now, state regulators will continue their current pace, per the lack of deadlines in the state’s original downstate casino legislation.
Because of that, we may not see movement on downstate casino construction until 2026.
