Faced with overwhelming political opposition, the Nassau Regional Off-Track Betting Corp. has backed off its plan to build a mini-casino in the vacant Fortunoff building in Westbury.
Judi Bosworth, who just began her second year as the North Hempstead Town Supervisor, was emotional about the decision. “I have never felt such heartfelt, passionate and coordinated concern before. This is democracy in action.”
And her counterpart, Hempstead Town Supervisor Kate Murray, said she was grateful that “OTB listened to the will of the people.”
Some accomplishment.
The casino would have created more than 200 new jobs while revitalizing a shopping mall. In addition it would have generated millions of dollars in much needed revenue for a county that is teetering on the brink of bankruptcy.
In a statement OTB said, “It is clear that the level of opposition from the surrounding neighbors and their elected representatives no longer made the Fortunoff property a viable option.”
For OTB, it’s back to the drawing board.
Belmont Park appears to be the most likely alternative. Until last week that was not a possibility because it’s just a few miles up the road from the Resorts World Casino at Aqueduct Racetrack in Queens. (By the way, Resorts World reportedly earned $800 million last year.)
Now that former Speaker Sheldon Silver, a defender of Resorts World who did not welcome the competition, is out of the way, there is no one to block that from happening.
But Bosworth and Murray didn’t know Silver was on his way out when they began their campaign to “just say no” to 200 jobs and hundreds of millions of dollars.
We hope the two will work just as hard on finding a comparable source of revenue for Nassau County taxpayers as they did in opposing the mini-casino in Westbury.
