N.Y. to license three new casinos

ALBANY, N.Y. - New York is poised to diversify its gambling revenue streams yet again in an ever-shifting market.

On Monday, state regulators are expected to license three new casinos in Upstate New York, a region that already has a dozen horse-track "racinos" and Indian casinos. The move fits a longstanding pattern of New York officials finding new ways to cash in on gambling - like approving video lottery machines at ailing horse tracks or expanding into multistate lotteries as Lotto sales dropped.

Analysts believe the market is too crowded for the casino expansion to create a huge revenue jackpot for New York. But it could help.

"Limited growth, that's the way it's been nationally for the last five years and New York doesn't seem to be that much different than other states," said Bennett Liebman, a gambling policy veteran who is now a government lawyer-in-residence at Albany Law School. "There is no reason to think it's going to be any different, even with additional casinos."

New York gets a major chunk of gambling revenue from lottery games. Money earmarked for education aid from traditional lottery drawings, instant games and video lottery terminals at horse tracks around the state topped $3 billion last year.

Racinos have helped increase lottery revenue in the last decade, especially with the 2011 opening of Resorts World Casino New York City. With more than 5,000 electronic slots and table games, Resorts World is the closest thing to a Las Vegas-style casino in the nation's largest city, and it accounts for more than $4 out of every $10 brought in by racinos statewide.

While lottery aid has hovered around $3 billion over the last five years, Gov. Andrew Cuomo's administration was able to tap another stream of gambling revenue in 2013 under deals with the tribes running New York's five Indian casinos. The Oneidas agreed to begin paying a share of their casino slots revenue, while the Senecas and the Mohawks resumed making payments they had halted amid complaints of unfair competition. Those deals added $161 million to state and local coffers last fiscal year.

The Cuomo administration has previously estimated new casinos could bring in more than $300 million annually to governments.