Officials from Nassau Regional Off-Track Betting Corp. said Saturday they would no longer seek to open a video gaming parlor at the former Fortunoff building in Westbury in light of major opposition from residents and local elected officials.
“While we firmly believe that this site would have received all of the necessary approvals, it is clear that the level of opposition from the surrounding neighbors and their elected representatives no longer made the Fortunoff’s property a viable option consistent with [Nassau Regional Off-Track Betting Corp.]’s long-term business model,” Nassau OTB general counsel Arthur Walsh said in a statement, according to Newsday.
Walsh told Newsday that OTB would seek an alternative location for the proposed parlor, which would include 1,000 slot machines and table games.
The announcement came a day after the towns of Hempstead and North Hempstead, the Village of Westbury and a local civic group received a temporary injunction in state Supreme Court against the opening of the OTB site, alleging the proposed casino violated Hempstead town building code.
In a statement, North Hempstead Town Supervisor Judi Bosworth said she was “pleased that OTB listened to the voice of the people and did the right thing.”
This is proof that mountains can be moved and casinos halted when residents and elected officials work together on an issue they feel passionately about,” she said. “There’s a collective sigh of relief in the Carle Place-Westbury-New Cassel community today.”
Bosworth, North Hempstead Town Clerk Wayne Wink and Town Councilwoman Viviana Russell (D-New Cassel) were among the elected officials that joined in protests of the proposed site in the last month.
Though the proposed site near the Source Mall in Westbury is located within the Town of Hempstead, Bosworth has said that 955 North Hempstead residences are located within half a mile of the site, and 2,830 within one mile.
Officials from Winthrop-University Hospital in Mineola also voiced opposition to the plan last Thursday, saying in a statement that the gaming parlor would congest traffic on Old Country Road.
“We believe that it will significantly increase traffic congestion in the area and in doing so will pose a serious health threat to the local residents and surrounding communities. Old Country Road is clearly one of the most heavily traveled in the region,” said John F. Collins, the hospital’s president and chief executive officer. A potential casino near Roosevelt Field threatens to bring traffic to a standstill and make it impossible for ambulances and those needing emergency medical care to get to Winthrop quickly.”
Norma Gonsalves, the Nassau County Legislature’s presiding officer, also joined the opposition Thursday, saying in a statement that “the impending lawsuit makes it increasingly clear that an unbridgeable chasm exists between the parties on either side of the issue.”
“Accordingly, I believe we have arrived at the time when Off-Track Betting must bow to the will of the people and consider abandoning its pursuit of the Fortunoff site,” Gonsalves (R-East Meadow) said. “That is an outcome that I and the Republican majority on the county Legislature would warmly welcome.”
