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Delaware North’s Finger Lakes Gaming & Racetrack could benefit by more than $18 million from a New York budget change enacted less than three months after Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie attended a Celtics game in a company-donated suite, according to syracuse.
The report examines the intersection of political fundraising, sports outings and gaming-industry lobbying. It raises ethics and campaign-finance concerns but does not establish that the donations bought legislative action or that the spending violated state law.
Finger Lakes stands to benefit from commission change
Heastie and at least four staffers attended a Boston Celtics home game in March in a luxury suite valued at $13,800. Delaware North donated the package to the Democratic Assembly Campaign Committee, or DACC, according to the report.
The company also donated similar suite packages in 2024 and 2025, with those donations totaling nearly $37,000.
Delaware North met with Heastie or his staff on multiple issues in each of the three years it donated suites. Following the 2026 Celtics outing, lobbying records showed meetings between Heastie and company lobbyists concerning Finger Lakes and slot-parlor tax rates.
The final state budget increased slot parlors’ commissions. The report estimates that the change could benefit Delaware North’s Finger Lakes facility by more than $18 million through mid-2029.
Among gambling companies lobbying on slot-parlor tax rates, Delaware North was the only one whose lobbyists reported meeting personally with Heastie, according to the report.
Delaware North says suites were for fundraising
Delaware North spokesperson Glen White said the company was asked to donate suites for political fundraising events.
“Our government affairs team and lobbyists always operate within applicable lobbying and campaign finance laws,” White said.
The report describes a distinction under New York’s ethics rules: gifts intended to influence politicians are prohibited, but campaign donations such as the suite packages are not considered gifts under state regulations.
Separately, New York law prohibits politicians and political committees from using campaign donations for personal benefit. Sports attendance must be connected to a campaign, party role or official duties.
DACC sports spending tops $1 million since 2015
Since Heastie became speaker and honorary DACC chair in 2015, the committee has paid more than $1 million to teams, stadiums and sports-related companies, according to the report.
More than half of its sports-related spending was classified as fundraising expenses, while over $154,000 was categorized as office expenses. Payments included more than $588,000 to the Yankees and more than $117,000 to a company that books retired Yankees players for events.
Richard Briffault, quoted in the report on the campaign-finance issues, said: “A lot’s just going to turn on how much of this is fundraising and how much of this is not.”
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Source: As reported by syracuse.
