Unless you grew up in New York City, you probably don’t consider the four boroughs outside of Manhattan to be New York City but they are. While Aqueduct Raceway in Queens, NY may be 30 minutes from parts of Manhattan it certainly is New York City. Last weekend Resorts World Casino opened at Aqueduct Raceway to a crowd of over 65,00 people. Not too shabby, especially when you take into account that there was a nor’easter.

“We were truly humbled by the astounding welcome we received on opening weekend — this reception exceeded everyone’s expectations” said Michael Speller, the president of Resorts World New York. “We are thrilled to welcome the public to this extraordinary new entertainment venue which employs 1,350 New Yorkers from the Queens and immediately surrounding communities. We extend our sincere thanks for those who came out to experience the new facility and all it has to offer. It was a truly remarkable day, and we are beyond grateful.”

Sure this is only a racino for the time being with VLT slot machines and video poker, but it’s something. A large portion of Atlantic City and Connecticut casino customers come from New York City and Long Island and this will hurt both markets a little right now. If (when) table games are added this casino will have a real ability to put a dent in casinos in those markets.

Right now this shouldn’t be seen as a death blow, but it has the makings of one.

Aqueduct Racetrack in New York was approved, Monday, for a 3o year gaming license and able to house 4,500 VLT’s.  In brief, a VLT is a slot, video poker or keno machine.  Of course this is another bad thing to happen to Atlantic City.

“That whooshing sound you hear is money flying out of New Jersey into the coffers of New York state,” Sen. Ray Lesniak (D., Union) said Monday in response to the Aqueduct project. Lesniak, a member of the Democratic legislative panel that is holding the hearings, is pushing to add sports betting and Internet gaming at Atlantic City casinos.

Photo: Flickr: rbglasson

The term Video Lottery Terminal, or VLT, is thrown around often in articles about gambling now.  This comes along with the rise of the racino.  Wikipedia offers an nice and simple explanation of what, exactly, VLT is.

A Video Lottery Terminal or VLT is a gaming machine that allows gamblers to bet on the outcome of a video game.

A VLT is similar to slots, except that it is connected to a centralized computer system that determines the outcome of each wager using a random number generator. Although the outcome of each wager is random, VLT operators are able to program in advance the total amount and number of payouts that its central computer system will allow at its connected VLTs. In this manner, VLTs can be thought of as computerized scratch-off lottery tickets.

Further, Racino VLT’s are treated differently than others.

Racinos differ from traditional VLTs in that all video lottery games are played on a Class II gaming machine. Class II games are played in a traditional Bingo format.

Other states that have legalized Class II VLTs in racinos are Delaware, Rhode Island, Louisiana, New York, and West Virginia.

And even more close to home for most gamblers.

Currently, only Oregon and South Dakota employ Class III gaming technology into their VLT games. This means that unlike any of the Class II states, Oregon and South Dakota lottery players compete against a house edge rather than other lottery players. This is the same type of gaming offered in Nevada, Connecticut and Atlantic City. Currently, the state of Oregon offers its players a 91-95% payout on each of its games. South Dakota offers an 88% payout.

Most US jurisdictions do not allow VLTs and those that do have attracted the same criticism the Canadian provinces have. However, some non-players have expressed tolerance for the machines.

I have plenty of reasons to stay away from VLT’s, and given the choice I’d stay away from them because I’m not very familiar and because of that don’t trust them.  Everything I read about VLT’s has a negative tilt so I’ll just stay away.