New Yorkers grappling with the coronavirus pandemic are warming up to expanding casino gambling as an economic dig-out alternative to tax hikes and spending cuts.

Seventy percent of the state’s registered voters support converting the Resorts World Aqueduct and MGM Empire City Yonkers video slots parlors into full-scale casinos, a Global Strategy Group survey financed by the two racino parlors found.

Only 16 percent of the respondents were opposed, with the rest undecided.

Two-thirds of voters in communities surrounding Resorts Worlds Aqueduct and 73 percent around the Yonkers racino back expanding gambling at the gambling parlors to include table games, according to the poll.

Resorts World-Aqueduct appears to be prepping for the legal right to expand gambling. The firm recently announced that its building a hotel next to its Aqueduct video slots parlor.

Emerging from the pandemic will be key for casinos to become cash cows again. Revenues were down $600 million last year because of closures and safety restrictions as the state sought to contain the COVID-outbreak.

Support for expanded casino gambling skyrockets when voters are told about New York’s fiscal crisis and how much revenue the casinos could generate.

“The billion dollars in license fees and millions per year in additional tax revenue and protection of jobs in hard-hit communities in Yonkers and the Bronx effectively
persuade undecided voters to tilt toward supporting the proposal,” the poll analysis conducted by Global Strategies said.

https://www.reportdoor.com/ny-has-major-support-for-casino-expansion-amid-covid-poll/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=ny-has-major-support-for-casino-expansion-amid-covid-poll