01-08-2008, 06:29 AM
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#892
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Veteran
Join Date: Nov 2005
Posts: 5,138
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http://www.newsday.com/news/opinion/...,3859716.story
Editorial: Belmont should get share of video lottery terminal monies
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… The speaker is adamantly opposed to these high-tech slot machines at Belmont, even though it's clearly the better location for an entertainment destination and could bring more than $1 million a day to the state. His city delegation wants Aqueduct to be the sole local VLT venue, because that's the only way the aging Queens track survives the developers.
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Apparently, Gov. Eliot Spitzer and Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno (R-Brunswick) will let Silver have his way for now. They've offered the dubious promise that Belmont VLTs will be revisited during budget negotiations, when there are more opportunities to deal - a risky and disappointing strategy, because Silver may never put Belmont in play.
Meanwhile, state leaders need to deliver a partial winning ticket to the Belmont community before any racing deal is reached this month. Belmont should at least get the same amount of host community money as Aqueduct does, and those funds should flow from the very first day the machines start whirling in Queens. And none of Belmont's money should cross the Nassau line, despite the few parking spaces and exit ramp that lie within Silver's city limits.
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