How far will NY casino developers go to woo communities and win licenses for downtown New York? NY is one of the biggest casino and sports betting markets, explaining the many casino bidders. As you guessed, these developers are willing and ready to do everything possible to win one of the three casino licenses for Downtown New York.
This includes funding children’s sports. This looks harmless because children have no say in the upcoming casino. However, some parents are unhappy about it, while others are okay.
Unsurprisingly, some parents were grateful for the effort while others did not because casino developers in the race are also divisive. In fact, some organizations support some proposed casino projects and reject others.
Indirectly Wooing Community Through Children
During a summer camp scheduled for this summer, some kids playing basketball at Coney Island wore t-shirts with the logo The Coney on them. The logo is a proposed casino by Thor Equities, Saratoga Casino Holdings, the Chickasaw Nation, and Legends, who are partnering to build a casino in Coney.
A few months earlier, a Las Vegas-based casino operator, The Sands, invited kids to a sports training featuring two superstars, Carli Lloyd, and David Beckham. The soccer children’s team attended the training event in Long Island, on the land The Sand is proposing to build a casino.
According to the NY gambling regulator, a community must embrace a proposed casino project for the developer to win one of the three licenses. This has motivated casino developers to go beyond the usual lengths to woo communities in downtown NY.
Unfortunately, no law prohibits these developers from sponsoring kids’ sports. In fact, this issue lies in a gray area.
Ideally, most states, including New York, restrict gambling operators from targeting minors in advertising. However, sponsoring kids’ sports events is not necessarily breaking the law. Some lawyers explained that such a situation fell into a gray area that is motivating most states to create clearer laws about such situations.
For instance, NY gambling regulators proposed prohibiting sports betting operators from advertising to minors below 21 years. This includes putting logos on jerseys.
No Ill Intentions?
Casino developers may ulteriorly intend to sponsor kids’ sports events in New York. However, some had sponsored children’s events even before they started bidding for a casino license in NY. One of these is Las Vegas Sands.
According to the operator’s spokesperson, The Sands regularly support children’s activities and education in communities that host their gambling facilities.
For example, when Las Vegas Sands was still operating a casino in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, it became like a foster parent to the school next to the gambling property. The casino operator also funds a charter school in Sin City.
The spokesperson continued explaining that the children who participated in the March soccer event sponsored by Las Vegas Sands featured less Sands’ signage. Ron Reese said the children had worn their own jerseys while Las Vegas Sands displayed just a few signage.
He promised Las Vegas Sands would continue sponsoring kids’ events because children were important to society.
These casino developers have not told kids about their casino bids. When parents asked their kids who they were playing for, they did not mention casinos or anything about advertising gambling projects.
Thomas Sicignano, the founder of Brooklyn USA Basketball, explained his group had been hosting similar sports clinics for the past 12 years. The group was only able to afford jerseys for kids this year because of the partnership with other casino bidders for the Coney casino.
Last Updated on by Ryan
