Tioga Downs, located in the small town of Nichols, officially opened doors as full-fledged casino on Friday. A former race track with slot machines, the venue now also features table games, including blackjack, roulette, and craps, as well as a poker room. Tioga Downs Casino has become the first commercial casino to be launched in the state of New York.
Owned by New York real estate developer Jeff Gural, the gambling venue was the last to be licensed by the state Gaming Commission. However, it was the first to open doors as it only required for the existing racino to be expanded into a full scale casino.
Back in 2013, New York State residents voted in favor of the construction of commercial casinos in the state. Prior to that, casino gambling had been allowed only in Native American reservations. In 2014, a specially appointed Gaming Facility Location Board recommended the development of three Las Vegas-style gambling venues in the Finger Lakes, Catskills, and Schenectady regions in Upstate New York.
Convinced that the Southern Tier region, where Tioga Downs is located, should have a casino, Mr. Gural and other proponents of the idea urged the board to reconsider its decision and recommend a fourth gambling facility for a license. Board members indeed reviewed their decision and four licenses were eventually granted by the Gaming Commission.
The four casinos are expected to generate $430 million a year in tax revenue for education initiatives, local governments, property tax relief, and many more, and to create numerous much-needed jobs. Tioga Downs Casino solely is projected to annually contribute $32 million in government revenue and to open 800 jobs for residents of a struggling region.
Many see New York’s commercial casinos as the future remedy for a complicated state of affairs involving high unemployment rate, stalled development and tourism activity, and other intractable problems in the Upstate region. However, this may be a bit difficult as the gambling market in the Northeast is in an immediate danger of saturation.
New Jersey is already home to seven casinos, Massachusetts is set to open two integrated resorts within the next several years, and Connecticut is gearing up to grab a piece of the gambling pie. The four Upstate casinos will also face serious interstate competition coming from the five casinos operating on tribal New York land.
Asked about whether he feared competition, Mr. Gural said that Tioga Downs Casino had nothing to worry about for now as the nearest casino was 100 miles away from his gambling venue. The entrepreneur pointed out that they expect patrons mostly from within a 50-mile range.
Apart from a race track and casino options, the Tioga Downs complex will also feature a 161-room hotel (currently under construction) with a banquet floor, water slides, and different dining options.
