No Casino for Saratoga Springs

By Mike Kane 

Due to strong community opposition, Saratoga Race Course will not have a destination casino in its Saratoga Springs neighborhood. Saratoga Raceway and Casino (SRC), home to a successful 10-year-old racino and a Standardbred track less than a mile from America’s oldest Thoroughbred track, notified city officials and the media Monday that the company would not apply for a license for a full casino at the site. Instead, the SRC is expected to apply for a license to operate a casino in East Greenbush, a town in Rensselaer County, approximately 40 miles southeast of Saratoga Springs. Groups interested in applying for a casino licenses must pay a $1-million fee by Apr. 23. A provision of the state Gaming Commission’s request for applications published on Mar. 31 requiring local support from the host municipality doomed the Saratoga proposal. That mandate was issued four weeks after the five-person Saratoga Springs City Council voted unanimously on Mar. 4 to support a resolution to oppose several key elements of the gaming act. Council members said at the time that they were reacting to public opinion, rejecting the lack of local control and protecting the horse racing industry that is an important part of the economy. Long a home to gaming and gambling–the famous city-owned Canfield Casino is a landmark in Congress Park–Saratoga Springs was thought to be a leading candidate to be the site of a facility when New York amended its constitution in 2013 to permit private casinos. Though the amendment, officially, the Upstate New York Gaming Economic Development Act, passed statewide in November, more than 57% of the people who went to the polls in Saratoga Springs voted against it. The measure also was defeated in Saratoga County. The amendment authorizes a maximum four casinos to located in three upstate regional districts. 
Pro- and anti-casino groups were organized in Saratoga Springs and the debate over having a casino in the city raged through the winter. An informational forum organized by the chamber of commerce drew over 1,000 people on Dec. 16. Prior to the city council’s vote on the non-binding resolution, approximately 50 people made statements during a public hearing. Pro-casino advocates said the casino would be an economic dynamo and argued that Saratoga Springs would be hurt if it was located somewhere else in the eight-county region. The groups opposing the siting said a casino would have a negative impact on the city’s thriving downtown, affect the quality of living in the city and might hurt Saratoga Race Course. Saratoga Springs was home to casinos most summers for approximately 100 years from the middle of the 19th century through 1949. The casinos era ended when Tennessee senator Estes Kefauver launched investigations into gambling. The first Thoroughbred racing meet was organized in August 1863 by casino operator John Morrissey as a daytime activity for his patrons. Saratoga Springs celebrated the 150th anniversary of that first meet in 2013. The race course grounds now in use were first opened in 1864.