{"id":103284,"date":"2019-04-18T13:58:07","date_gmt":"2019-04-18T20:58:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/?p=103284"},"modified":"2019-04-18T13:58:07","modified_gmt":"2019-04-18T20:58:07","slug":"monticello-raceway-shutting-down-casino-racing-future-uncertain","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/monticello-raceway-shutting-down-casino-racing-future-uncertain\/","title":{"rendered":"Monticello Raceway Shutting Down Casino on Tuesday, Workers Fear Racing Soon to Follow"},"content":{"rendered":"

The end is near for machine gaming at Monticello Casino & Raceway, as Empire Resorts plans to shut down the track\u2019s video-lottery terminals (VLTs) next Tuesday after 15 years.<\/p>\n

\"Monticello
Monticello Raceway will be shutting down its casino operations, with some fearing that racing itself may not last much longer. (Image: Kelly Marsh\/Times Herald-Record)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The elimination of the slots-like machines comes a little over a year after the opening of the nearby Resorts World Catskills casino, which is located just six miles away from the racetrack.<\/p>\n

Racino Overshadowed by Nearby Resort<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Empire Resorts owns both venues, and it was all but inevitable that the massive resort would overshadow the limited casino gaming options that are present at Monticello Raceway. While the 1,100 VLTs were once a major attraction, they can\u2019t compete with the full range of casino gambling options visitors can find at the nearby resort.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is not enough business that remains at that VLT facility to justify the cost of operating it,\u201d Empire Resorts president and CEO Ryan Eller told the USA Today Network\u2019s Albany Bureau last week.<\/p>\n

The planned closure of the VLT area was first announced in January<\/a>. The Poughkeepsie Journal<\/em> reported this week that attendance at the racino has been light since the opening of Resorts World Catskills, with the newspaper estimating that about 50 people were in the 1,100-machine VLT hall last Wednesday afternoon.<\/p>\n

There has been talk of moving those machines to another location, though there could be a fight over where exactly the VLT gambling goes.<\/p>\n

\n

There is legislation in the New York State Assembly that would allow the Catskill Off-Track Betting Corp. to take over the machines, spreading them out over three different locations in the region. However, Empire Resorts has fought against that plan, suggesting instead that it could build a new VLT location in Orange County that would host 1,100 machines.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re eager to explore various options to preserve the Monticello Raceway operations, and relocating the raceway video-gaming machines to Orange County would definitely go a long way to that goal,\u201d Eller told the Poughkeepsie Journal<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Racing Faces Uncertain Future at Monticello<\/strong><\/h2>\n

But workers at the Monticello Raceway have more immediate concerns. About 160 jobs were eliminated, though workers were offered severance packages or jobs at the Resorts World Catskills casino. That leaves only about 40 employees currently working at the racetrack.<\/p>\n

That has led to questions over how much longer Empire Resorts will support racing at Monticello, something that might be little more than an afterthought for the casino operator.<\/p>\n

\u201cNot so long ago, they said they needed the video lottery terminals or they\u2019d close the track,\u201d Catskill Off-Track Betting Corp. president Donald Groth told the Times Herald-Record<\/em> earlier this month. \u201cDoes anyone think they\u2019re going to keep running the track now without the support of those VLTs?\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

A recent report by the Herald-Record <\/em>noted that track attendance has been \u201cnegligible\u201d for weekday afternoon racing, and while both casino management and an attorney for the Monticello Harness Horsemen\u2019s Association have insisted that the raceway is contractually required to stay open, there are many who fear racing may simply become unsustainable.<\/p>\n

Empire Resorts might be more inclined to support Monticello Raceway if their $1 billion Resorts World Catskills was meeting expectations. Instead, the casino has continued to fall well short of revenue projections<\/a>, and the New York State Gaming Commission has approved a request by Empire Resorts to lower the number of slot machines at the casino by 550, reducing the minimum requirement from 2,150 machines to just 1,600.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The end is near for machine gaming at Monticello Casino & Raceway, as Empire Resorts plans to shut down the track\u2019s video-lottery terminals (VLTs) next Tuesday after 15 years. The elimination of the slots-like machines comes a little over a year after the opening of the nearby Resorts World Catskills casino, which is located just […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":42,"featured_media":103285,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[62,14577,18],"tags":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nMonticello Raceway Shutting Down Casino, Racing Future Uncertain<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Monticello Raceway will shut down its VLT operations on Tuesday, though there are efforts to move those machines to a new location in Orange County.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/monticello-raceway-shutting-down-casino-racing-future-uncertain\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Monticello Raceway Shutting Down Casino, Racing Future Uncertain\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Monticello Raceway will shut down its VLT operations on Tuesday, though there are efforts to move those machines to a new location in Orange County.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/monticello-raceway-shutting-down-casino-racing-future-uncertain\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Casino.org\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Casino.OrgNews\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2019-04-18T20:58:07+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/Monticello-Racing-Closure.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1800\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1202\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Casino.org Staff Writer\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@Casino_Org\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@Casino_Org\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Casino.org Staff Writer\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/monticello-raceway-shutting-down-casino-racing-future-uncertain\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/monticello-raceway-shutting-down-casino-racing-future-uncertain\/\",\"name\":\"Monticello Raceway Shutting Down Casino, Racing Future Uncertain\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/monticello-raceway-shutting-down-casino-racing-future-uncertain\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/monticello-raceway-shutting-down-casino-racing-future-uncertain\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/Monticello-Racing-Closure.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2019-04-18T20:58:07+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2019-04-18T20:58:07+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/8c48bf89dc86da77b4d856c7b3b78d77\"},\"description\":\"Monticello Raceway will shut down its VLT operations on Tuesday, though there are efforts to move those machines to a new location in Orange County.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/monticello-raceway-shutting-down-casino-racing-future-uncertain\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/monticello-raceway-shutting-down-casino-racing-future-uncertain\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/monticello-raceway-shutting-down-casino-racing-future-uncertain\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/Monticello-Racing-Closure.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/Monticello-Racing-Closure.jpg\",\"width\":1800,\"height\":1202,\"caption\":\"Monticello Raceway will be shutting down its casino operations, with some fearing that racing itself may not last much longer. 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