Casino news from http://www.thejournalnews.com/
October 11, 2006 YONKERS - It may not be Las Vegas on the Hudson, but gamblers with an urge to test their luck today will get their first chance to hit the only casino merely minutes from the New York City border.
Yonkers Raceway is expected to reopen at 10 a.m. today after a 15-month hiatus, with the sounds of some 1,870 video lottery machines - electronic games modeled after traditional casino fare, such as slots and poker - filling the once moribund, 107-year-old track's clubhouse.
Empire City Gaming at Yonkers Raceway, as the reborn facility is called, is the closest casino gambling available to New York City and the largest of its kind in the state. It became a reality five years after the state Legislature, desperate to generate new revenue after the financial shock of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, approved eight video lottery casinos at horse tracks around the state.
The raceway also, however, has endured a myriad of delays, including legal disputes with gambling opponents upstate and its own horse owners, drivers and trainers in Yonkers.
"There's challenges in any large project," said Timothy Rooney Jr., the track's general counsel and son of owner Timothy Rooney. "We've obviously had our fair share of them. But we're happy to finally be getting opened."
The initial opening is a limited one. Track officials plan to open only the first floor of the renovated clubhouse, featuring the first 1,870 video gaming machines.
The shiny machines with the flashing lights have already withstood "family and friends" tests, in which the facility's new employees take a test run with invited guests, Rooney said.
Upper floors of the clubhouse and a new, adjacent building that will hold a majority of the 5,500 machines expected in the project's first phase are still under construction. Yesterday, crews were continuing to pave the facility's parking lot, and the old garage at Yonkers and Central Park avenues was in the process of being demolished.
The harness track, closed since June 2005, will not open for a week to 10 days, Rooney said. The track, under an agreement ending a lawsuit brought by horse owners, trainers and drivers this year, will make up the missed racing dates, Rooney said. The track has been closed more than 15 months, after initially agreeing with horsemen to close for only five months.
While track officials today planned a ribbon-cutting ceremony with public officials, including Yonkers Mayor Phil Amicone, they have resisted aggressively marketing the opening because of all the construction. The track is planning a more formal grand opening once the project's first phase is completed by the end of the year, Rooney said.
Yonkers Raceway is permitted to operate as many as 7,500 machines under the 2001 state law that authorizes eight horse tracks to operate video lottery casinos. The additional machines would be included in a second phase.
The casino is not like a typical Las Vegas, Atlantic City or American Indian casino.
There are no table games like blackjack or craps. The majority of the games are electronic versions of slots, only players do not directly insert money into machine or experience the jingling of falling coins when they win a jackpot.
Players pay a cashier for a card they insert into the machines that is subsequently credited or debited, depending on their luck.
Other games besides slots are available, however. There is video poker and other electronic card games, for example.
Six casinos already have opened at Saratoga, Monticello, Batavia, Finger Lakes in Farmington, Fairgrounds near Buffalo and Tioga Downs in Nichols.
Track and state officials are eager to open the casino, which is projected to reap millions per week for the state.
According to the Lottery's Annual Financial Plan update in August, Yonkers was to open its first video gaming machines Sept. 20, reaping $118.3 million by the end of the state's fiscal year March 31. State budget officials downplayed the effect the delayed opening would have on the state budget.
Even with its limited opening, Empire City immediately becomes the largest video lottery casino in the state.
The next largest facility is Monticello Mighty M Gaming, with more than 1,500 machines. In the week ending Sept. 23, Mighty M netted $1.5 million, with $771,643 going to education, according to figures from the state Division of Lottery Web site.
Saratoga Gaming and Raceway, featuring 1,300 machines, netted $2.3 million from video gaming in the week ending Sept. 23, according to the state Division of Lottery's Web site. Of that, $1.2 million is to go for education.
The track, down the street from the famed thoroughbred track, was the first to open a video lottery casino in 2004.
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