Tuesday, Vernon and Tioga Downs owner Jeff Gural emerged as the lone bidder for a Southern Tier casino license, and revealed plans for a proposed full gaming resort.
The bidding process for a casino license was reopened after a previous bidding process did not net a casino project for the southern tier region. Last year, 16 companies submitted applications for casino licenses, of which three were awarded by the state – in the Catskills, Finger Lakes and Schenectady, Gural said.
On Tuesday he told reporters that he was surprised the southern tier did not get a license in the first go around. But, now that the second chance was opened and now closed, he was confident that he would get a license.
Gural noted that he has a license in Pennsylvania, and was a good candidate for a license, and added that he would work with Finger Lakes area attractions such as wineries and glass museum in Corning, to help develop the region into a more attractive travel destination.
Tioga Downs was the only bidder to turn in an application by Monday, the deadline for interested parties to submit the details of their plans to state gambling regulators. A second contender, lead by Jeffrey Hyman, proposing a casino for Binghamton, backed out over the weekend.
Tioga’s proposal to expand into a Las Vegas-style resort casino was rejected last year by a state panel that instead recommended three casinos elsewhere in the state.
Gural said he made changes to the original plan in response to feedback from the panel. Among other changes, Tioga’s new $145 million proposal includes a larger hotel, more casino space and a second restaurant. In the future, Gural said he could see other attractions such as a water park being developed.
Details of the proposal include a revamped facility that would feature 1,000 slot machines, 50 table games, live harness racing, 161 boutique hotel rooms, six restaurants and two lounges, a 60,000-square-foot event center and an outdoor concert venue with seating for over 12,000.
Gural said that the expanded casino project would create 560 new jobs, brining the total at the facility to 1,100.
According to a release from Tioga Downs, “Not only are the current 550+ liveihoods at Tioga Downs in jeopardy if Tioga Downs is not awarded this casino license, but 350 direct jobs at Tioga Downs’ sister property, Vernon Downs, are also in jeopardy. Facing new competion from the recently opened Oneida Nation’s Yellow Brick Road Casino and to-be built Lago facility, Vernon Downs’ viability is in grave danger without the economic support from an expanded Tioga Downs.”
Licenses for the other three projects selected last year will be formally granted as soon as Sept. 30, according to information presented Monday at a meeting of the state’s Gaming Commission, the body that oversees the process. Background checks of the development groups behind the three projects are expected to be completed any day.
Gural said on Tuesday he expected to hear around Labor Day whether his facility would be granted a license.
“I’m confident we will be successful,” Gural said.
