Albany

New York City developer and harness track owner Jeff Gural made his pitch Thursday for what would be upstate's fourth casino license, stressing that he envisions a relatively modest, locally oriented operation rather than a massive Las Vegas-style edifice.

"I know how to run a mom-and-pop operation with 1,000 slot machines and 50 table games," Gural told members of the state Gaming Commission's Facility Location Board.

The three-member board will decide whether to recommend that Gural's project be allowed to expand his existing Tioga Downs harness track/racino into a full casino.

Gural and his team spent much of their presentation stressing that a Tioga Downs casino would focus sharply on the Southern Tier market rather than trying to draw customers from other planned upstate gaming centers.

The existing track/racino is located in Nichols, Tioga County, an economically depressed region between Elmira and Binghamton.

Gural pointed to the area's high unemployment as well as a recent conclusion by New York Federal Reserve Board economists that only Puerto Rico is doing worse financially than Binghamton. (The Reserve Board region includes the island as well New York and parts of New Jersey and Connecticut.)

"That's really why we're here today,'' said Gural. " ... My memory of Binghamton was back in the days when IBM was there."

The presentation, in New York City's Javits Convention Center, represented Gural's second shot at a license.

Late last year, he was not chosen in the initial competition for a casino license in what lawmakers had dubbed the Southern Tier region. That slot went to the Lago casino/resort led by Rochester developer James Wilmot.

But Binghamton-area politicians and others complained that Lago, located in the northern Seneca County community of Tyre, isn't really in the Southern Tier, which is usually defined as the area running just north of the Pennsylvania border.

That prompted Gov. Andrew Cuomo to urge the commission to open another round of bids, which it did.

Location Board members initially said they wanted to see a major investment by bidders. Because Gural's plan involves adding on to the existing harness track and video lottery machine "racino," it calls for a smaller dollar amount. His project, including the existing facilities, would represent a $195 million investment, with $107 million of that new spending. Lago, by contrast, is pegged at $425 million. The two other planned upstate casinos, Montreign in the Catskills and Rivers in Schenectady, have touted estimated investments of more than $600 million and $300 million respectively.

Gural was also the only bidder interested in getting a Southern Tier license.

Over the past decade, Gural purchased and refurbished Tioga Downs and Vernon Downs. He also owns New Jersey's Meadowlands harness track, the nation's largest. He is proposing a casino at the Meadowlands, which needs voter approval.

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