The fate of three Manhattan casino proposals may have been sealed three years ago, 150 miles to the north.
Major developers, casino companies and investors spent millions of dollars trying to bring full-fledged gambling halls to Times Square, the West Side and near the United Nations. But in the last two weeks, they all ran into a hurdle they couldn’t clear: Local panels that chose to kill their proposals.
Albany lawmakers created the community advisory committees in a round of legislative dealmaking at the Capitol in 2022. They were granted the ability to stop a proposal from advancing to the final stage of bidding if the community opposed it.
