ALBANY — An expanded racino at Aqueduct would more than double the state’s annual take from the racetrack gambling hall, raising the projected payout to $700 million, The Post has learned.
Gov. Cuomo favors expanding the racino in exchange for its private operator, the Genting Group, spending $4 billion to build what would be the nation’s largest convention center at the Queens site.
A racino expansion would net the state more than $700 million per year by a “conservative estimate” based on the state’s analysis of Genting’s projections, according to a senior Cuomo administration official.
The current racino, without the expansion, is estimated to bring the state $350 million a year.
The state takes 70 percent of racino revenues, but would take a smaller cut on new machines, said Cuomo aide Howard Glaser.
Cuomo himself yesterday revealed that despite his efforts to legalize Las Vegas-style casinos in New York, he last gambled in a casino “many, many years ago — and I lost.”
He also told reporters he’s never laid down a wager at any of New York’s nine racinos and hasn’t played the state-sponsored lottery in “months.”
Cuomo argues New York is surrounded by casinos in neighboring states — as well as racetrack gambling halls and Indian-run casinos within its own borders — and should get a cut of the revenues.