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Albany, NY - The State Senate has passed legislation allowing full gaming casinos in Sullivan County. Two would be authorized for development there.

This is but step one. The Assembly must also approve the bill and that house has not even introduced a companion at this point.

If it were to pass in that house, it must face a state constitutional amendment, which means a second consecutive state legislature would have to approve it before it would go to a vote of state residents. People within Sullivan would then have to weigh in on it with their approval, for casinos to move forward.

Senator John Bonacic, in whose district Sullivan County lies, voted for the bill, but noted there are many more hurdles that must be jumped before any casinos would be built.

As it stands now, Monticello Casino and Raceway has only video lottery machines and any changes for a full casino, at the moment, rests with the US Department of the Interior, which would have to reverse a Bush administration order disallowing off-reservation Native American casinos.

The newly approved Senate bill would allow casinos also in Saratoga, Tioga and Vernon Downs.

Advocates thought they had a potential jackpot when the bill passed the Senate late Tuesday and then picked up a sponsor in the Assembly, Assemblyman William Magee, D-Nelson, Madison County.

But Magee and Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, D-Manhattan, said the measure’s prospects for passage are slim.

“I don’t think there’s a great deal of sentiment in my conference to have New York be the gambling capital of the world,” Silver said. “I don’t think the people want it in this state, and I don’t believe that the members who represent them really want that.”

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