Poll: Wide support for more NY casinos

ALBANY -- Just as politicians are touting gambling expansion, a new poll Thursday indicates most New Yorkers would support amending the state constitution to allow Las Vegas-style casinos.

Siena College found that 57 percent of those surveyed would allow non-Indian-run casinos to be built in New York, compared with 36 percent opposed.

The poll comes as some legislative leaders and industry groups are making a strong push to allow a statewide referendum on casino gaming. Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo has discussed the idea and, earlier this week, said he'll announce his position in January, when the new legislative session kicks off.

This is the first time Siena has asked voters about amending the constitution to allow casino gambling, said poll director Don Levy.

The level of support is "remarkable," Levy said.

About 71 percent of those surveyed agreed that casinos "would bring in significant revenues" for state and local governments. Asked whether casinos "will only increase societal problems such as crime and compulsive gambling," 54 percent said yes, 41 percent no.

New York has five upstate casinos run by American Indian tribes and eight "racinos," horse racing tracks that include video slot machines. The soonest any casino referendum could go to voters would be November 2013. That's because lawmakers must approve a measure to offer such a statewide referendum in separately elected legislatures, presumably in 2012 and 2013.

At a recent hearing in Albany, Randy King, tribal chairman of the Shinnecock Indian Nation, said getting a constitutional amendment passed would be a lengthy, uncertain process, whereas proposed American Indian casino projects could begin development immediately. The Shinnecocks, for example, are considering sites at Belmont racetrack and in Suffolk County. King urged lawmakers to advance the state and federal approval processes to get tribal projects moving.

The last time the State Legislature considered amending the constitution to allow casinos, in 1997, the Republican-led Senate soundly defeated it -- amid strong opposition from religious groups, anti-gambling groups and developers such as Donald Trump who owned casinos in competing states.