Since 2004, the Saratoga Casino Hotel in the State of New York has been contributing to the New York State Education Fund. Recently, the casino celebrated the contribution of a whopping $1 billion to the fund. This milestone was reached thanks to the expansion of the casino’s harness track into New York’s debut VLT facility nearly 15 years ago.
The casino issued a statement after officially reaching the milestone on October 6th. The president of Saratoga Casino Hotel, Daniel Gerrity said in the statement: “Since opening the doors to our casino in 2004, we’ve worked diligently to develop a historic harness track into a strong entertainment destination for our region and New York.This is something we’re very proud of, and we could not have achieved this without the commitment of our team members, unions and trades staff.”
Nearly half of Saratoga Casino Hotel’s total gaming revenue is directed to New York State Education. This fund then disperses the money across the region according to the needs of the educational institutes. Only three out of the nine casino properties in the state have so far passed the $1 billion milestone for education.
The casino has seen significant growth in the past decade and a half, expanding from just 35 full time employees in 2003 to 620 today. The senior vice president of External Affairs, Skip Carlson thanked the hundreds of workers and noted: “We don’t make a billion dollars for education without their support.”
Thanks also came from NY State Assemblywoman, Carrie Woerner, who expressed her gratitude for the financial support that the casino has provided to Saratoga County and the rest of the state. She said that the casino has demonstrated good community stewardship along with a strong reliance on purchasing goods and services from local businesses.
“We congratulate them on the significant achievement of contributing one billion dollars to New York State Education,” she said.
All in all, the casino has contributed over $9.3 million to the city of Saratoga Springs and $3.1 million to Saratoga County.
