The three new upstate New York casinos, touted as ‘Vegas style’ resorts, have failed to live up to state revenue expectations, it was revealed recently.
The River Casino & Resort in Schenectady, and the Tioga Downs Casino in the Southern Tier are far behind forecasts for 2017. However, none of the casinos performed as badly as del Lago Resort & Casino near Waterloo in the Finger Lakes which is 42% behind yearly forecasts. Del Lago reported $63.1 million in gross revenues in its first five months of operation since it opened in February – down over 40% from its predicted $263 million in annual revenues in its first year.
Rivers Casino & Resort, which also opened in February, generated gross revenues of $56 million through June 2017.
All three of the above are non-Indian casinos that were given the green light by the state to open up and compete in the market against the well-established Indian casinos.
The Resorts World Catskill, a fourth state-approved non-Indian casino is due to open in 2018 in Monticello.
Tioga Downs owner, Jeff Gural was quoted as saying: “I think the market is saturated and we’ve got a lot of work to do to get the revenues where they need to be.” Gural also owns a racino-style gaming operation at the Vernon Downs racetrack in Oneida County.
At the time that Gural was lobbying for permission and support to build his Tioga Downs Casino, he predicted that the facility would generate $32 million worth of taxes to the state. Unfortunately, he was was only able to send just $13.3 million in taxes through the end of June
According to a Reuters report, The three non-Indian New York casinos reportedly remitted a total of $50.2 million to state coffers.
The state gambling authorities seemed to be more forgiving regarding the poor numbers posted by the three casinos, stating that while the figures were worse than expected, at least the three casinos managed to create jobs and spend on construction costs – thus boosting local economies.
Robert Williams, the executive director of the New York State Gaming Commission also reminded that “the full amenities are not yet open.”
From each of the four new casinos, the state will grab a set percentage of slot and table game revenue. In addition, 80% of all collected taxes will go towards education and property tax relief, 10% is earmarked for host municipalities and another 10% goes to the casinos’ neighboring counties.
