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We'll talk about casinos now because 10 sites in an around. Brian Lair on WNYC.

We'll talk about casinos now because 10 sites in and around New York City, or it might be down to nine, we'll find out, have been competing for three downstate casino licenses that the State Gaming Commission is expected to award by the end of the year.

So from Coney Island to the Bronx, from Yonkers to the Nassau Coliseum site,

the race is on for the three licenses.

But there's also competition between different community groups and leaders from around some of those sites who either want a casino in their neighborhoods or don't.

The city field area is one prime

example. The two state senators from that part of Queens, John Liu and Jessica Ramos,

are on different sides of that. So let's see what's happening with the race for and against

casino licenses with Nick Garber, who covers city and state politics for the

business news site, Cranes, New York. Hey, Nick, thanks for coming on for this. Welcome back to

WNYC. Hey, Brian. Thanks for having me. Can you start with some basics for our listeners? This goes back

to a statewide ballot referendum back in 2013, right?

That's right.

So, yeah, under then-Governor Cuomo, the state, you know, created the process by which there would be three full-scale casinos that could open in or around New York City.

That process got sort of accelerated back in 2022 under Kathy Hochle to basically get the tax revenue faster,

which is something that, you know, state policymakers are pretty eager to get their hands on,

all the money that's going to come out of these casinos. And so then that process itself has been

delayed by a couple years, but finally it seems like this year is going to be the year that

these three casino licenses for the New York this year is going to be the year that these three

casino licenses for the New York City area are going to be given out.

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