Brian Laird 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 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 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 City area are going to be given out.

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