Floral Park residents weren’t happy with their county legislators’ response Monday to their vocal opposition to a video casino at Belmont Park.
Dozens of Floral Park residents at the county Legislature’s meeting, including Mayor Thomas Tweedy and Trustee Christopher Fitzgerald, practically and philosophically diverged with Nassau County Legislator Richard Nicolello (R-New Hyde Park) on the proposed casino’s potential impact on areas bordering the Elmont race track.
“We’re disgusted with their response,” said Christy Reisig, past president of Floral Park’s Wednesday Mothers Club, which had several members present at the meeting in Mineola.
In a Dec. 15 resolution, Floral Park’s Village Board codified residents’ concerns that Nassau Regional Off Track Betting’s apparent plan to put 1,000 video lottery terminals, or VLTs, at Belmont Park would increase traffic and crime rates and lower property values in the area.
The Floral Park-Bellerose school board and local civic associations have adopted similar resolutions.
But Nicolello, who represents part of the village, said the worries are based on incorrect information and questioned how VLTs would hurt Floral Park, given that gambling has happened at Belmont Park since its inception.
“Whatever negative impacts of whatever form of gambling they’re doing, those negative impacts will be there, and yet, for a century, with Belmont Park being there, Floral Park has remained a strong, vibrant community, is that correct?” Nicolello asked Tweedy in a sometimes heated exchange.
When Elmont resident Patrick Nicolosi made a similar argument that “gambling is gambling,” the Floral Park crowd booed him.
Contrary to Tweedy’s and others’ claim that the casino would add more that 20,000 cars to Floral Park’s roads, Nicolello said, it would bring an average of 5,000 visitors a day, and about 40 percent will come on buses.
But Tweedy said the casino would have to see 340,000 visitors a month to net the county $20 million in revenue, as projected in Nassau County Executive Edward Mangano’s 2016 budget. That many people would strain the village’s resources, he said.
Floral Park residents say VLT casinos become hubs for gang activity, citing incidents at the Resorts World Casino at Aqueduct Racetrack in Queens.
But most VLT players are women between ages 50 and 70, Nicolello said, and the Queens casino is capturing revenue that could stay in Nassau.
Tweedy also made a distinction between horse-race gambling and casino gambling, as the latter has been proven to have negative effects on most areas where it happens.
“I will submit that all the communities of Nassau are tired of playing Russian roulette with the gun held by OTB, hoping somehow that OTB’s gun goes off in some other community’s head and ruin(s) their neighborhood instead of our own,” Tweedy said Monday.
Nassau OTB has not officially announced a location for the video casino, but Floral Park officials say news reports and conversations with lawmakers indicate Belmont Park is the most likely place.
Mangano said earlier this year that an announcement could come in December.
Tweedy said the Legislature should replace Nassau OTB’s board of directors because they have kept residents and lawmakers alike in the dark about its plans.
But that could be both illegal and unethical, Nassau County Legislator Vincent Muscarella (R-Floral Park) said.
Nicolello and Tweedy both said they would to meet to further discuss Floral Park’s worries and determine which projections are accurate.
“The residents have a right to make sure that all their concerns are addressed and as this process goes forward, there should be an ongoing discussion about them,” Nicolello said in an interview.
