With applications for casino licenses due to the state at 4 o’clock Monday, the decision of which of three groups gets to build a casino in the Southern Tier is officially in the hands of the state. Applications were due to the New York State Gaming Commission, and the three developers that have made it known they would be submitting applications were the three to do so. Tioga Downs, Traditions at the Glen, and Rochester-based Wilmorite submitted their applications. Wilmorite submitted its application Friday and Tioga Downs and Traditions at the Glen submitted theirs on Monday. At least 100,000 pages of documentation from each of the bidders was submitted. The next step for each group is an oral presentation on their applications, which will be delivered sometime after Labor Day. After that, public hearings will be held in each region to collect public input on proposals, with selections expected to be made in the early fall. The state has the ability to issue up to four casino licenses upstate, with at least one in the Eastern Southern Tier, the Capital region, and the Catskills/Hudson Valley, with the Catskills the favorite to land two licenses. Tioga Downs’ application consisted of over 120 boxes containing 300,000 pages of documentation, all of which were submitted shortly after nine o’clock Monday morning. Tioga Downs’ plan includes a $90 million expansion project, with a 136-room hotel, and the casino would also have a minimum wage for workers of $10.10 an hour, with plans to donate a minimum of $500,000 to local charities each year.
