The New York State Comptroller’s Office has ruled out that the state’s four commercial casinos must pay their US$13 million of oversight fees to the New York Gambling Commission. The fees in question for Rivers Casino & Resort, Lago Resort & Casino, Resorts World, and Tioga Downs Casino are for the time period of April 2017 to March 2019.
The Comptroller’s Office reported back in January 2020, that the Gaming Commission was unable to bill and collect the owed fees from the state’s four commercial casinos. Prior to that, the four gambling establishments were billed for the oversight fees in November 2019 and had a month deadline to make the payments. But to this day the commission still awaits the payments.
Who’s to Blame?
The New York Gaming Commission claimed that insufficient regulations prevented it from billing the four casinos in question for the oversight fees. For the same timeframe of April 2017 to March 19, over US$153.7 million was collected from video lottery terminals and tribal casinos in the state. Additionally, the commission was not able to bill the four commercial casinos for US$3.7 million for costs such as office equipment and supplies.
Also, the four gambling properties were billed for US$4.7 million in oversight fees for the period of April 2019 to March 2020. Adding the amount to the previous US$13 million comes at a total of US$17.7 million of unpaid obligations to the commission. Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli asserted that the commission must exercise better control over the rapidly growing gambling scene in the state.
In its January 2020 report, the Comptroller’s Office has provided some recommendations for the commission on how to collect the overdue oversight fees. According to the report, the commission suffers from a lack of policy that would resolve oversight fee arguments. The report also stated that the regulator was not strict enough in its monitoring of the revenue flow from tribal casinos.
Mr. DiNapoli said that the commission has undertaken some of the recommendations from the previous report, but it needs to implement further protocols. Especially, now when the New York State legislature is considering lifting the moratorium on downstate casino licenses in order to generate more state revenue. The casinos’ response was that they were looking into the allegations from the report.
Gambling Expansion
Speaking of the rapidly-growing gambling market in the New York state, at the start of April, the local government has officially included mobile sports wagering in its new budget plan. The gambling change will be adopting Governor Andrew Cuomo’s proposal of a limited operator model with two or three gambling organs that will be responsible for the online expansion.
But the expansion does not stop here, Governor Cuomo hinted that the issuing of downstate casino licenses might come sooner than the expected 2023. The proposal was submitted to the State Senate, and if approved it will allow casino operators to apply for the licenses on July 1 this summer. With a final decision on the subject coming 150 days after that.
Source: Darmanjian, Sarah “4 N.Y. casinos owe Gaming Commission $14.7 million, including Rivers Casino”, News10, May 10, 2021
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