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The Business Council supports this legislation that seeks to provide relief to medium sized gaming facilities by raising the threshold that requires a vendor track to provide matching funds in order to access the state’s Vendor Capital Awards program.
Currently, this  program allows operators of a gaming facility to utilize four percent of their “net win” amount strictly for capital investments to improve their facilities. The Capital Award is subject to an annual cap of $2.5 million. This program has helped facilities update existing facilities and remain competitive with facilities in other states.
However, for certain medium facilities, this program requires a facility to co-invest an amount of capital expenditure equal to the amount of award the facility is accessing. This matching requirement is a significant business expense and puts certain facilities at a competitive disadvantage from accessing the award. The threshold also could work as a disincentive against facility expansion. Eliminating this threshold will have no fiscal impact on state finances but will remove an unnecessary disincentive against medium size facility investment and expansion.
Video lottery gaming facilities in New York State generate close to $3 billion in economic activity across the state and employ approximately 30,000 people. In addition, these facilities generate approximately $900 million in aid to education and another $238 million to support the horse racing and breeding industry. This bill will help keep New York’s gaming industry competitive and continue generating revenue for the State.
For these reason, the Business Council support adoption of S.5930/A.961.