Back in December 2014, the New York Gaming Facility Location Board gave the nod to three of all sixteen bidders that proposed projects for casinos in the state. The new venues will be located in the Catskills, the Capital Region, and near Albany.
According to official data from the state Gaming Commission, during the past two years, the real estate developers behind all sixteen casino projects hired lobbyists to present them in the best possible way to state officials and agencies.
There were three casino bids for the eastern part of the so-called Southern Tier region – Lago Resort & Casino, Tioga Downs, and Traditions Resort & Casino. Reportedly, approximately $452,000 were spent on lobbying for the projects in the period January 2013 – December 2014.
Under the state gaming legislation, each lobbyist that was to represent a given client before the local Gaming Commission needed to register with the secretary of the commission.
Back in July 2014, the New York Public Interest Research Group reported that all casino bidders spent over $6.7 million on various lobbying campaigns in the period between 2012 and 2013.
As mentioned above, on December 17, 2014, the local Gaming Facility Location Board announced its decision to license the following three casino projects – Lago Resort & Casino, Montreign Resort Casino, and Rivers Casino & Resort. The licenses are yet to be issued by the Gaming Commission.
During its meeting on January 13, the board decided to issue a new application request for yet another gambling venue in the Southern Tier region. The Request for Application has not been released yet, but it seems that currently, Tioga Downs is the only bidder to be showing interest in it.
Reportedly, Tioga Downs spent a little less than $91,000 on lobbying campaigns in the two-year period between January 2013 and December 2014. Of these, American Racing and Entertainment, LLC, the company that owns Tioga Downs, paid 99 Solutions, LLC the amount of $30,000 from January 2013 to June 2013 to lobby the executive, administrative, and legislative branches of the local government on various gambling-related issues.
American Racing and Entertainment, LLC did its lobbying between May 2013 and December 2014 and spent $42,893 for the purpose. Moreover, it paid Douglas Barton of Owego the sum of $18,000 to ensure that the Tioga Downs project was to be supported by Southern Tier officials.
Developers of the Lago Resort & Casino project spent $222,500 on lobbying from January 2013 to December 2014. According to official data, the money was paid by two companies – Syracuse Raceway Inc. and Rochester Malls, LLC, and went to Brown & Weinraub.
Thomas Wilmot, chairman of Wilmorite Properties, Inc., the real estate developer that proposed the Lago Resort & Casino, stated that Brown & Weinraub has been representing his company for more than 15 years.
Back in 2013, the lobbying firm was paid the amount of $27,500 by Rochester Malls, LLC to lobby state officials on various different gambling-related issues. In addition, between November 2013 and December 2014, Syracuse Raceway Inc. paid Brown & Weinraub $195,000 to represent the casino project before the state legislative branch.
As for Traditions Resort & Casino, the third Southern Tier bidder, the total amount of $138,500 was spent on lobbying campaigns in the period between July 2013 and December 2014. The Elk Street Group, LLC received $44,194 from Homestead Village Development Group to represent the project before the local legislator from July 2013 to December 2013.
The rest of the money – $93,000 – was paid to Manatt, Phelps & Phillips, LLP from January 2014 to December 2014 to lobby government officials. In 2014 again, Traditions was registered as its own lobbyist and this cost its owner $1,384.
In other words, all three Southern Tier casino bidders spent the total amount of $451,971 to make sure that their projects were presented to state officials in the best possible way.
