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$11 million push for casinos

Advocates advance their agendas with heavy spending
By James M. Odato

Updated 10:22pm, Monday, July 7, 2014

1 of 8

Demolition takes place at the former Alco site on Monday afternoon, July 7, 2014 on Nott Street in Schenectady N.Y. This is the
proposed site of the Rivers Casino at Mohawk Harbor. (Selby Smith / Special to the Times Union)

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More than $11 million has been spent by casino

interests to advance their agendas in Albany
over the past two years, the New York Public
Interest Research Group said in a report
releasedMonday.
The
group's analysis arrives as bidding teams
await review of the 17 upstate casino proposals
that were due to the state Gaming Commission
at
the end of June. The study focuses on
spending by current advocates of casino
expansion, although many of the bidders were
not on the scene with bids, and some of them

http://www.timesunion.com/local/article/11-million-push-for-casinos-5605501.php[7/8/2014 6:54:08 AM]

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NYPIRG said parties associated with the

bidders spent $6.7 million on lobbying campaigns in 2012 and 2013. These parties
contributed
$4.3 million to state and local political committees during
the sameperiod.

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Genting, the Malaysia-based entertainment and resort giant that runs Aqueduct Race Track's
racino and is bidding on two Orange County casino sites, spent more than any other operator:
a
total of $2.5 million on lobbying and $984,244 in campaign contributions,
NYPIRGreported.

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The lobbying firm Patricia Lynch Associates,

whose chief client was Genting, topped a list of
the highest combined compensation and expenses at $855,708. Cordo & Co., also a Genting

lobbyist, was second on the list at $840,325.

Among the Capital Region teams applying for a casino license, the Capital View Casino group
seeking to build in East Greenbush topped $423,000 in campaign contributions, followed by
the Galesi Group, which is trying to build in Schenectady, at $45,515. Michael Malik and Emil
Galasso, partners trying to get a licenses for Howes Cave in Schoharie County, combined for
$17,650.
The
top lobbying spending and compensation in the region came from the Hard
Rock/Capital
District Off-Track Betting team, at $41,826.
Updated campaign donation data for the past six months will be available from the state
July15.
The
NYPIRG report misses some money spent in the past two years, including sums spent on
lobbying in localities with populations smaller than 50,000, where state law does not require
reporting of lobbyistactivities.
NYPIRG did not track money spent on anti-casino efforts unless the funds were reflected in
public filings, and it did not consider spending by some of the in-state native tribes that may or
may not be supporting gamblingcompetition.
The lobbying spending should have no impact on the decision on which applicants get awarded
casino licenses. The New York Gaming Commission's
siting board is treating the matter as a
procurement process, and state
leaders are supposed to refrain from talking to representatives
of biddingteams.

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Formal, public presentations by the teams will be scheduled for later this month by the
GamingCommission.
Also Monday, the commission added Kevin S. Law and Dennis E. Glazer to its independent
siting board, which will oversee the valuations of 17 bids for four casinolicenses.
Law, of the Long Island Association, and Glazer, a lawyer, join Stuart Rabinowitz, Paul Francis
and William Thompson on the siting board. Glazer is a retired partner at the international law
firm of Davis Polk & Wardwell LLP. Glazer has been married since 1981 to Westchester County
District Attorney Janet DiFiore, who also served as chairwoman of the state Joint Commission
on Public Ethics.

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jodato@timesunion.com 518-454-5083 @JamesMOdato

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