Although voters would be asked to authorize as many as seven new casinos, the governor and legislators said they would also approve a law allowing, at least for the next seven years, only four, located in the Catskills, the Albany area and the Southern Tier region along the border with Pennsylvania.
If voters approve the constitutional amendment, New York would become the most populous state in the nation with full-scale Las Vegas-style casinos with table games like craps and roulette. New York already has five upstate casinos owned by Indian tribes, and as well as nine racetracks with electronic gambling, also known as racinos. The new casinos would not be near the tribal casinos or in New York City and its suburbs.
On Wednesday, Mr. Cuomo called casinos a critical part of a larger effort to revitalize the economies of long-suffering upstate regions, along with tax-free zones at state universities and a financial restructuring board. He said the casino legislation was "about gaming, and gaming is about tourism, and tourism is about jobs."
But the referendum is far from a sure thing. A Quinnipiac University poll earlier this month showed that 48 percent of New York voters favored amending the Constitution to allow expanded casino gambling. Support was even weaker in New York City, a dynamic that poses a potential challenge to supporters of expanded gambling because the mayoral race is expected to mean higher turnout in the city than in other parts of the state.
"It's pretty much a standoff," said Maurice Carroll, the director of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute.
Businesses and organizations with strong interests in gambling have been spending millions on lobbying and political contributions in Albany to influence lawmakers on whether to reject or accept the expansion. According to an analysis by the New York Public Interest Research Group, a government watchdog group, these groups with gambling interests have given nearly $2 million to statewide campaign committees, candidates and parties.
One of those donors is Genting New York, which runs a successful slot parlor at the Aqueduct racetrack in Queens. Genting has donated more than $125,000 to dozens of Republican and Democratic candidates since the 2010 election. The new casino deal would effectively ensure the company's monopoly in the borough for at least seven years, and on Wednesday, the company said it fully supported "the governor's goals of upstate job creation and economic development outlined in the proposal."
Mr. Cuomo has also seemingly neutralized some of the potential in-state opposition, in part by striking three recent deals with Indian tribes to settle long-simmering contract disputes and other issues. Those tribes, which received geographic exclusivity for their gambling operations, could have been potent financial backers of a "no" campaign.
Another potential opponent — the New York Gaming Association, which represents the state's racinos — indicated that the proposal was "a great improvement" after the governor and leaders made several changes to protect the racetracks, the association's president, James Featherstonehaugh, said.
A casino referendum would quite likely be opposed by some religious groups and people who oppose gambling as a form of regressive taxation and possibly by the operators of casinos in neighboring states who fear competition from expanded casino gambling in New York. Dennis Poust, a spokesman for the New York State Catholic Conference, said on Wednesday that the state's bishops were concerned about the impact of compulsive gambling, as well as social ills "associated with casinos, like crime and prostitution."
The casino bill, introduced late on Tuesday and announced on Wednesday, would also permit 2,000 new video lottery terminals — similar to slot machines — at off-track-betting parlors in Nassau and Suffolk Counties, a plan backed by Dean G. Skelos, the Long Island Republican who shares leadership of the State Senate with a group of breakaway Democrats.
The casino issue was not the only one being settled during the last days of the legislative session. Late on Tuesday, the governor split his 10-point Women's Equality Act, which includes a measure strengthening the state's guarantee of abortion rights, into 10 stand-alone bills after previously insisting that all 10 points be included in a single piece of legislation.
Mr. Cuomo said on Wednesday that he did not want lawmakers to be able to cite procedural reasons for skipping a vote.
"If they don't vote, it's because they don't want to vote," he said, "and a nonvote is a no vote."
Mr. Cuomo, anticipating lawmakers would not take up his proposals to address corruption in the Legislature, also said on Wednesday that he would name a commission to investigate campaign fund-raising by state elected officials.
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