Sands Nassau County Casino Effort Scores Win in New York Appeals Court
Posted on: November 12, 2023, 07:50h.
Last updated on: November 14, 2023, 08:58h.
Late Friday, the appellate division of the New York State Supreme Court put a hold on a state Supreme Court ruling that the blocked lease transfer of Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum in Uniondale, NY. That’s the property on which Las Vegas Sands hopes to build a new casino hotel.
The appellate court’s ruling means a previously announced 99-year lease pact between Nassau County and Sands can proceed until an appeal hearing on that ruling proceeds. That’s slated for November 21.
For far too long, the Coliseum site known as The Hub has been languishing in a twilight zone of inaction,” said Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman in a statement. “We are grateful that the Appellate Division granted a stay of the lower court’s decision, and we’re confident the lower court’s ruling will be overturned. I will continue to stand for the proposal by the Sands to develop a world-class luxury hotel, spa, entertainment center, and casino which will bring $5 billion in construction, good paying permanent jobs and tax relief for our residents.”
Blakeman has long supported using the Coliseum land as a casino resort site. However, he’s also been vocal in saying that the venue should be less gaming-centric and focus more on dining, entertainment, and bringing convention business to Long Island.
How Sands, Nassau County Got Here
The appellate division ruling occurred after Hofstra University sued Nassau County in April, claiming the lease transfer agreement breached New York’s Open Meetings Law.
New York State Supreme Court Justice Sarika Kapoor agreed. In a ruling issued last week, the judge noted that Hofstra proved that the county purposefully didn’t allow public comment on the lease transfer.
Nassau County “engaged in improper segmentation by not considering the future development planned by Sands, the Court finds that the Nassau County Legislature did not take the requisite ‘hard look’ at the relevant areas of environmental concern raised by the lease transfer,” wrote Kapoor in the decision.
Las Vegas Sands said Kapoor’s ruling doesn’t impact its Nassau County plans, nor does it believe the decision hinders its odds of landing one of the three downstate casino permits that New York regulators will award in the future.
Nassau County Casino Has Detractors, Supporters
Including Blakeman, Long Island policymakers of both parties support the casino effort, noting it could create thousands of jobs and boost local tax collection efforts. Likewise, many local businesses believe a gaming venue would be economically accretive to the area.
Conversely, Hofstra, the Say NO to the Casino Civic Association, and the Uniondale Nostrand Gardens Civic Association are among the entities that ardently oppose a casino resort coming to Long Island.
“This is no place, this is not the right venue, this is not the right county for a casino project of this magnitude,” Pearl Jacobs of the Uniondale Nostrand Gardens Civic Association told News12. “It would be the equivalent of seven football fields – it would be right in the middle of 60,000 students from graduate school all the way down to kindergarten.”
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Last Comments ( 6 )
Hofstra University's Office of the Registrar's records show that back in 2020 and 2021, most of the university's undergrads were still in high school. They probably heard much more about substance abuse than they did about gambling addiction. Most likely if gambling addiction was ever mentioned, it was probably only once. Here are the facts they never heard. Compulsive gambling, also called gambling disorder, is the uncontrollable urge to keep gambling despite the toll it takes on your life. Gambling means that you're willing to risk something you value in the hope of getting something of even greater value. Gambling can stimulate the brain's reward system much like drugs or alcohol can, leading to addiction. If you have a problem with compulsive gambling, you may continually chase bets that lead to losses, use up savings and create debt. You may hide your behavior and even turn to theft or fraud to support your addiction. Your life will no longer be charming. Don't think you can never bet too much on a winner. You will quickly find out you can't. Rally together and fight this proposed casino in Nassau County! Don't just hope for the best that someone else will do it.
I would volunteer to help them build the casino. All these nay sayers are the typical obstructionists. i wish I could have the casino built in my backyard
This mega casino is only supported by people who think they can make money or get “community benefits”. Nassau County tried to rush this through to avoid scrutiny and got caught. Las Vegas Sands picked the absolute worst location in the downstate NY area - a very congested suburb with no major highway nearby, no mass transit and that is next top colleges and a Catholic high school.
Where is the appeal being heard on November 21?
Exactly- the only “community support” for this project is from those who have been promised a deal from Sands. The residents of Nassau Co don’t want a casino despite what Blakeman tells you.
If Mr Blakeman wanted the project to be “less gaming centric” he failed miserably: the casino will be larger than any in Las Vegas. The truth is that there is no grass-roots support for this project. Special interest groups and political pressure are behind this. So much for Mr Blakeman’s pledge to go forward on it only if there was widespread community support.