The state Legislature authorized up to three new casino licenses in the downstate region back in 2022, but progress has been slow. Now one lawmaker is saying enough with the delays, as the state Gaming Commission says decisions on where those casinos will be are still over a year away.

State Sen. Joe Addabbo told Spectrum News 1 that it is taking way too long to get these casinos up and running. He hopes Gov. Kathy Hochul will take action on a bill he sponsored, which passed late last session, to codify deadlines into law.

Earlier this year, the Gaming Commission updated the due date for applications to June of next year, with decisions to be made in December 2025.

The bill retains a Dec. 31 due date for recommendations, but set an Aug. 31, 2024 date for applications to be due, with the hope that an earlier deadline could result in earlier decisions.

That date has now passed, but Addabbo said when the governor considers the bill, the due date could simply be adjusted. The point, he argued, is to ensure that timeline is legally galvanized in state law and there are no further delays.

He emphasized that there is simply far too much revenue and far too many jobs at stake to risk the process being delayed any further, including revenue for the MTA in light of the congestion pricing pause.

“These are great union jobs. We’re talking about each site having at least a thousand construction jobs, for post-construction each of them having 2,500,” he said.

While Atlantic City Casinos are perhaps the most at risk, there there are concerns that expediting the downstate expansion could impact upstate casinos. Addabbo pointed out that the state prioritized upstate casinos in the immediate aftermath of the legalization of such facilities, and now it is downstate’s turn to see its own expansion.

“If you look at a town like Schenectady, in and around Rivers Casino there has certainly been a revitalization there, so to get the four upstate casinos up and running and give them a head start I thought was the right thing to do, now it’s the remaining three licenses for the upstate region,” he said.