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Tioga Downs Casino overview. What started in 2006 as a relatively small county-fair-themed Standardbred racetrack with 800 Video Lottery Terminals became New York state’s first officially licensed commercial casino when the new Tioga Downs Casino opened up in December 2016. In late August, casino leaders held a rally in Albany demanding guidance from the governor on how casinos can reopen. Employees from Tioga Downs attended the rally. In July, a WARN notice filed. With New York’s non-tribal casinos still closed due to the coronavirus, Vernon Downs and Tioga Downs owner Jeff Gural said his New York tracks have run out of purse money and will close following the weekend of Sept. In response to Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s recent announcement that casinos and movie theaters in New York state will remain closed, Tioga Downs and Vernon Downs are re-closing their hotel doors to the.
Tioga Downs Casino Resort TIOGA DOWNS CASINO RESORT. 2384 West River Road Nichols, NY 13812. 888-WIN-TIOGA (1-888-946-8464) (607) 699-3901. Tioga Downs is located 30 miles south of the Finger Lakes in Nichols, New York.
The future of non-tribal casinos in the region isn't looking bright, as thousands of employees are now facing layoffs. At Tioga Downs and Vernon Downs, more than 900 employees were furloughed at the start.
According to state law, those employees could soon be terminated if casinos aren't given the green light to open. Due to the WARN act, workers must be terminated if they aren't brought back within six months of being furloughed.
What You Need To Know
- Tioga Downs, Vernon Downs owner says casino jobs are at risk if casinos can't reopen
- Furloughed workers won't receive federal benefits after July 31
- Owner says keeping casinos closed is working against communities in New York
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'They’re going to go from maybe making $1,000 a week to making $400 a week, which is less than they make working for me, and you can’t live on $400 a week,” said American Racing and Entertainment Chairman Jeff Gural.
As of July 31, furloughed workers will no longer receive federal benefits such as the CARES Act. Tioga and Vernon Downs owner Gural is now speaking out on the uncertainty, saying that keeping New York casinos closed is actually working against the health of communities.
'My customers are not sitting home waiting for me to open. They’re going to other venues, all of which are open. The casinos in Pennsylvania, Connecticut, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Ohio, are all open, and the Indian casinos,” said Gural.
States like Pennsylvania and New Jersey have infection rates much higher than those in Tioga or Vernon. Gural says he already has safe re-opening plans in place. New filtration systems are being installed, temperatures of every customer would be checked upon entering, and masks would be required.
“The state is monitoring me, so I can’t cheat. I have to make sure everybody is wearing a mask. I want everybody to wear a mask,' Gural said. 'I think it’s counter-intuitive. I understand where the governor is coming from; I just don’t think he understands the mentality of a casino customer.'
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Tioga and Vernon Downs would also check license plates for any outside customers where rates are high.
'If we saw there was a spike in a certain county in the region, we would let people know we’d prefer you’d don’t come, and when we scan their driver's licenses, we would not let them in the door,' said Gural.
Tioga Downs recently hired hundreds of employees thanks to its new hotel.
Track owner Jeff Gural said if non-tribal casinos in New York state remain closed, harness racing in the state could be in for even tougher times in 2021.
by Bill Finley
With New York’s non-tribal casinos still closed due to the coronavirus, Vernon Downs and Tioga Downs owner Jeff Gural said his New York tracks have run out of purse money and will close following the weekend of Sept. 12 and 13.
Gural had planned on shutting the tracks after Labor Day but said he wanted to stay open so that Tioga could okay host to the finals of the Excelsior Series on Sept. 11.
Tioga was ordinally scheduled to race through Sept. 19 and Vernon was set to close Nov. 7.
“The current plan is to close the weekend after Labor Day, unless by some miracle they allow us to open the casino,” Gural said. “There is no indication that is going to happen.”
New York is the only major racing state in the U.S. where the casinos have not opened. That has shut off the funnel of money from the casinos that is used to fund purses. Tioga and Vernon had already cut their schedules down to two days a week instead of three and Monticello has stayed closed all year.
New York Governor Andrew Cuomo addressed the situation July 30 when he told reporters the casinos remain closed because it is “an issue of density, the likelihood of compliance and the essential nature of the business.” When asked why malls were allowed to open and not casinos, Cuomo said it was because “people need food, people need clothes, people need home goods.”
New York’s casinos have been closed since March 16. According to the American Gaming Association, of the 990 casinos in the U.S., 851 have reopened.
Gural said he was able to keep the two tracks open as long as he has because the purse account builds up over the winter when racing is not operating, but the casinos are. That money is set aside to fund the upcoming racing meet. He said both tracks have used up that money and added that he has spent some of his own money to keep Tioga going through the Excelsior finals.
Gural said the ongoing closure of the casinos could also affect his tracks next year as there may not be any casino money coming in over the next several months that can be used for 2021 purses.
“Ordinarily, the cycle would start over again,” he said. “The bigger problem is going to be next year. Everything depends on when the casino opens and how much revenue we generate.”
He said the longer the casinos stay closed, the bigger the problem will be for New York harness racing. The vast majority of the purses come from the casinos and the tracks simply can’t do without that source of revenue.
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“Besides destroying the casinos it has destroyed racing,” he said.“It’s a huge blow to racing in New York. A huge amount of money is no longer available to purses and that can destroy racing. If the casinos don’t open soon we might as well take a year off. We already had to cut back to two days a week. That has been catastrophic for New York racing, which relies entirely on casino revenue. But this is what happens when you rely on a subsidy.”
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He said he also fears the casino shut down could lead to an effort to decouple, which is what happens when casinos no longer have to give a portion of their revenues to racing. Gural said the casinos will be in such tough shape while the shutdown continues that they might seek remedies to bolster their bottom line, including decoupling. “We really have to be watching carefully what happens next,” he said.
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Gural has always been a supporter of Cuomo, but admits he has grown frustrated with the governor’s failure to open the casinos. Cuomo has no control over the state’s tribal casinos, all of which are open. Casinos are also open in four states that border New York — Massachusetts, Connecticut, New Jersey and Pennsylvania.
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“I think the governor has done an amazing job,” he said. “In New York, we are down to one per cent testing positive. But we haven’t been able to convince him that by keeping us closed, it’s actually keeping people less safe. If all the casinos were closed that would be one thing. But we are closed and the eight tribal casinos are not. Neither are the casinos in Pennsylvania, Connecticut, New Jersey, Ohio. Everybody who would ordinarily be going to my casinos in an area where nobody is sick is now going to other casinos in areas where there are far more people testing positive than in upstate New York. We just weren’t able to mark that argument to convince him. If he were sitting here I could convince him, but that’s not the case.”