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VLT Resolution Meets Muster In Rochester
Locals Like Idea Of Local Spending Incentives

ACCORD – Video lottery terminals for local resorts received the blessing of all of Rochester's town board members after a public hearing held last Thursday, April 16. David O'Halloran, owner of Pinegrove Ranch, and Eliot Spitzer, primary investor in the Hudson Valley Resort, presented their plan to bolster business by adding the terminals as amenities for guests. The proposal would also turn the casino concept of the "comp card" on its ear, using it to inject some of that gambling money into the local economy, rather than back into more gambling. The idea of gamers receiving dollars of credit simply for playing is not a new one, but typically that money rolled right over into more bets. These cards, however, would not be redeemable at the resorts in question, and would instead only be usable as debit cards in Ulster County businesses.

Supervisor Carl Chipman feels that the cards in particular sets this idea apart.

"We don't want another Atlantic City," he said later, noting that by encouraging local spending, he expects the opposite to happen. "If your grandma has a credit for twenty dollars at a local business, she's going to want to spend it... Antique stores, gas stations, farm markets, it's all going to go into the local economy, and that's very good. It's never been done like that anyplace else."

The board unanimously passed the resolution in support of a state law to allow the two resorts to install the machines. That law is being carried by Assemblyman Cahill and State Senator Seward. Should it prove successful in Albany, there will be significant investment in improving the two resorts, to the tune of $40 million between them.

Cahill has previously said that he wasn't sure if the proposal would be opposed by the newly-minted casino license holders, one of which is setting up shop nearby in Sullivan County.



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