Credit: Getty Images
The majority of New York City voters say they support adding up to seven new casinos upstate, a new poll shows.
When asked if they would approve the amendment that would authorize up to seven casinos, 60 percent of likely voters said yes.
According to The New York Times/Siena College Poll, most voters said they believe the new casinos would bring “significant new revenue for state and local governments.”
“That is a strong margin of victory for the gambling amendment,” said Steven A. Greenberg, a Siena College pollster. “If support is 60 percent in New York City, I am hard pressed to see how it could fail statewide.”
The city is home to about 40 percent of the state’s voters, according to the Times, and voter turnout is expected to be high this Election Day because of the mayoral race.
Gov. Andrew Cuomo has been pushing for the amendment to the state’s constitution to allow Las Vegas-style casinos, saying it would revitalize the upstate economy.
Most city voters, however, said they are not likely to visit one of the upstate casinos themselves. Forty-nine percent of voters said they are “not at all likely” to visit one of the new casinos.
Voters also said they would not support adding a full-scale casino in the five boroughs. Fifty percent said they would oppose locating a Las Vegas-style casino in New York City, while 42 percent said they would support it.
When asked about the potential negative effects of the casinos, 29 percent of voters said the casinos are very likely to increase societal problems such as crime and compulsive gambling. Thirty-one percent said it was somewhat likely, 21 percent said it was not too likely, and 14 percent said it was not at all likely.
The poll was conducted over the phone from Oct. 21 through Oct. 26 with 1,215 adults, including 701 likely voters. The margin of sampling error is plus or minus three percentage points for all adults and four percentage points for likely voters.
