Empire Resorts‘ Montreign Resort Casino project has two things in common with Rivers Casino & Resort and Lago Resort & Casino (well, three if you count the fact that none has been built yet). All were chosen from among 16 applicants for three casino sites in New York State and all three had been clients of Chicago‘s Taft, Stettinius & Hollister law firm. And when the New York Gaming Facility Location Board needed a consultant on the selection process, who did it choose? That’s right: Taft, Stettinus & Hollister. This has drawn the attention of New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman, who’s looking into possible conflicts of interest, a probe that could upside the whole Empire State applecart.
The Location Board knew of the Chicago’s firm’s past ties to the casino applicants but chose to employ it anyway. To be fair, two of the losing bidders — Newburgh‘s Hudson Valley Casino & Resort and Live! Hotel & Casino — had also been Taft, Stettinus & Hollister clients. Both projects were in Orange County, which was awarded no casinos. In any event, Taft’s ubiquity reminds some of the situation in Springfield, Massachusetts, when the city was revealed to be consulting with the same firm that represented applicant Penn National Gaming. The saving grace for the Location Board, as it was for Springfield, may be that having polygamous relationship with your consultant doesn’t necessarily mean its casino client is going to win in the end.
In its defense, the board is citing a statutory mandate to employ a gaming-savvy consulting firm whose tasks included compiling “applicant submissions and state agency materials into 
useful, comparable summaries.” “Taft had no direct input into decision-making of the board members,” said board spokesman Lee Park. Five other firms were considered and, in the board’s defense, it was the state Gaming Commission that chose Taft, signing the contract before a single Location Board member had been chosen. (Lago, however, initially redacted its conflict-of-interest disclosure.)
Schneiderman will be interviewing all applicants, who include Caesars Entertainment and Genting Group, to get their sense of whether the process was fair or not. In its own defense, the Location Board has made available what it describes as “all material regarding the process” on its Web site.
Gaming USA Corp. CEO Alan Woinski shrugged off the investigation, saying, “Very rarely is there any kind of casino licensing approval that doesn’t get met with some sort of lawsuit or investigation. Usually it’s started by losing bidders. Otherwise it’s started by the anti-gaming people that just don’t want it in their town.” That’s certainly the case with Lago.
Peppery Tioga Downs owner Jeffrey Gural, most voluble of the also-rans, was surprisingly conciliatory, saying of his meeting with Schneiderman’s delegate, “I didn’t think any laws had been broken.” Another runner-up, lobbyist James Featherstonhaugh has spoken with Schneiderman’s office. Of the Location Board’s work, he said, “We thought that the process was handled fairly and professionally. We wish we had won. But we didn’t.”
Schneiderman’s office has found plenty of smoke. Fire, however, may prove more elusive. And even though the investigation threatens to upend its plans, Lago (for one), is proceeding as though it expects its award to be upheld. As for the unawarded fourth license, Gural is still the only potential bidder on the horizon.
* When it comes to clout, one suspects the Oceanport City Council doesn’t carry a lot with Gov. Chris Christie (R) and New Jersey lawmakers. That hasn’t prevented the august body from going on 
record that, should casino gambling be expanded beyond Atlantic City, fair Oceanport is the place — the only place — to do it. Why? Because it’s home to Monmouth Park racetrack. Local officials are even offering cuts of the theoretical revenue with other horse tracks, which is mighty big of them.
However, with both Jersey City and the Meadowlands openly lobbying for a casino, legislators are unlikely to say, “Whoa! We’ve got to give it to Oceanport!” True, Monmouth Park was going to be New Jersey’s beta site for sports betting, but only because no one else wanted to run the risk. If they break Atlantic City’s exclusive hold on casino gambling, lawmakers are going to want to cuddle up as close to the New York City market as they can get. As for Oceanport, it’s entitled to dream.
* When Scientific Games purchased Bally Technologies last year, it inherited a patent-infringement lawsuit (the manufacturing sector’s preferred form of recreation) from Table Max Gaming. Fortunately for Scientific, the U.S. District Court dismissed the suit with prejudice — after six years in the legal system.
That should be the Oceanport borough council. It is most decidedly not a city.