The first members of the Gaming Facility Location Board have been chosen by New York regulators.
The New York State Gaming Commission unanimously agreed to appoint Quenia Abreu, Vicki Been, and Stuart Rabinowitz to the New York Gaming Facility Location Board.
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The board will look over and rate applications for commercial casinos in the US state. It will also suggest up to three additional casinos that should be licensed.
In April, lawmakers in New York state consented to plans to build three casinos in the downstate area, which includes New York City. By January 6, 2023, the board will ask for applications from any casinos that are interested. The first licenses won't be given out until later following year at the earliest.
"I really appreciate that these people want to take on this job, which is truly a public service," said Commission chairman Brian O'Dwyer. "This competitive process and the projects that come out of it can really change communities by bringing in money, jobs, and tax revenue."
Abreu is the president and CEO of the New York Women's Chamber of Commerce, a nonprofit group that helps women and minorities become economically independent through company ownership, microenterprise, and self-employment.
She has been in charge of the group since August 2003. Before that, she was the director of the Women's Business Centre at Queens Economic Development Corporation and the Women's Business Resource Centre at Hunts Point.
Been is the Boxer Family Professor of Law at New York University's (NYU) School of Law. He is also an affiliated professor of public policy at the NYU Wagner Graduate School of Public Service and the faculty director of the Furman Centre for Real Estate and Urban Policy at NYU.
Been back at NYU after working as the deputy mayor for housing and economic development and the commissioner of housing preservation and development for the City of New York.
Rabinowitz is a senior attorney at the law firm Meltzer, Lippe, Goldstein & Breitstone. His main areas of focus are state and federal litigation, appellate litigation, constitutional law, civil rights law, voting rights law, education law (including higher education), labour relations, and working with local, state, and federal agencies and officers on economic development.
In 2014 and 2015, he was also on the New York Gaming Facility Location Board.
