I am Jenna Flanagan.

There is a fierce battle underway over the future of casinos in New York City.

There are no less than 12 competing developers to build a casino in the city including a proposal for a gambling entertainment complex in Times Square.

That proposal has gotten a lot of pushback from the Broadway industry.

Proposed projects on Citi Field and Nassau Coliseum have also drawn protests.

Here to tell us all about the proposal on the table and what New Yorkers are saying about the prospect of having a casino in their neighborhood is Andy McDonough.

This is the deputy City Hall reporter for this -- for the state of New York.

Welcome to MetroFocus, Annie.

>> Let's start with what exactly we are talking about when we say a casino in New York City.

>> Just to take it back a little bit, this all started in 2013 with a ballot measure to expand its casino gambling in New York State.

There were four built of state and 10 years later, we are finally -- the state's get to the process of potentially ordering up to three new casino license, Vegas style gambling downstage.

There are proposals in the town of Manhattan, Citi Field, Nassau Coliseum is one of them.

It could really go anywhere at this point.

There are two front runners, really.

There are two existing casinos with horseracing.

Because there are -- those were already existing establishments.

Officially, there are no frontrunners for the state and any of these three licenses could go to any of these.

Up to a dozen so far.

>> So many things to unpack for what you just said.

I think what will probably get a lot of people's attention is the idea of Vegas style in New York City.

There is already so much to do.

What is the argument for putting in a casino which is usually a tourist attraction when New York City does not have a problem with getting tourists?

>> That is corrected.

This is the argument that these teams are real estate developers and gambling companies are doing across the city with these proposals.

There is a massive bit of revenue for these companies to be made.

Hundreds of millions in annual net profits.

This is also tax revenue for the state.

That is part of it.

The discussion about what a casino can do for New York at this stage recovering from the pandemic has taken on new urgency.

There is the argument that tourism is not what it once was.

And these casinos could have a role in bringing renewed energy, new tourist back to back on the city or on Long Island, Coney Island as well.

They are also trying to argue that it is not just a benefit for their specific establishments but it will have some trickle benefits for other restaurants and hotels in the area.

Because you have this well of tourists coming in.

There was see Broadway shows while they are here.

That is the argument that these would-be applicants are trying to make at this point.

>> I kind of see where the developers are going.

Say people go and gamble in Vegas and maybe they stay and see our residency show or something like that, that could be Broadway but what is the pushback from the theater community?

>> The theater community -- we are pretty early in the process here.

Applications have not even gone in yet.

They are still in development.

We are early in the game.

The Broadway league that is a trade organization has been very outspoken for months now against Times Square casino.

Their arguments about increased congestion in one of the most congested blocks in the country.

Disruption with existing entertainment theater industry there.

There is that argument against it.

It is also local community residents outside of Times Square.

Those worried about congestion are worried about crime, the problems with gambling.

We are starting to see at this point coalitions of community groups come together with their objections to just the idea of these proposals, several Manhattan community boards have come out with their opposition to the idea of a casino in the area.

We will see that pickup in the next few months as more details about the proposals come out.

>> As you were laying out what all these community groups and neighborhood organizations -- in a lot of cases it sounds like they are vocalizing their opposition to this.

When it comes to the approval process, who has final say?

This is not just public opinion we are talking about.

>> Corrected.

There is a state three-person board that was created called the state gaming location board.

They are overseeing the entire application process and at the very end of this process, we don't have a deadline for it yet.

A few months from now, we will see them make recommendations to the state gaming commission about which of these applications that make it through the long gauntlet should receive one of the three licenses.

Before that state gaming Board can even consider these applications, every application I have submitted will have something called a community advisory created in the local community.

There will be members appointed to that committee by each of the local officials, that is the governor, the mayor, the County executive.

Local legislative leaders.

They have to approve by two thirds vote -- give their local signoff before the proposal can move forward to the state.

>> Out of curiosity, every time I hear about a board that is nonpolitical, I assume these are not elected positions, they were appointed by somebody.

>> Designed to be nonpolitical.

These are people who have not held prior elected office.

They have knowledge of government.

They are not meant to have any connection to gambling companies.

One of the members of the board would not be an elected official.

That is the intention of this board.

Our very vocal mayor who has been very vocal about getting people to come back to the city, do we know where he stands on the possibility of a casino in Times Square?

>> He has not given his specific opinion on where a casino should go.

>> This is the one thing he has weighed in on.

>> He wants to see a casino in New York City.

He has not played any favorites yet.

There is Times Square.

There is the Manhattan one and then there is Coney Island.

There is talk of exploring one in Staten Island.

He has not played favorites at all.

At least not publicly.

In terms of where a casino should go.

He has said he supports a casino in the five boroughs.

>> So much of what we have been talking about, we have been talking about the idea of a casino in Times Square.

Some of the other locations, has there been similar pushback?

Is this something that we welcome with open arms?

>> There were starting to be.

It is a Hudson yours proposal.

It is hard to imagine a casino in the middle of Midtown Manhattan and those developers have already put up a pretty aggressive PR campaigns and they have done community outreach.

Steve Cohen is mulling a proposal at Citi Field.

He talked about what to do with that.

A casino entertainment venue is an idea.

There is a Coney Island proposal that would aim to turn Coney Island into a year-round destination for tourists and New Yorkers as opposed to just a seasonal one.

Both those proposals would be proposals, there has been some level of community pushback already.

There's also been coalitions saying, local businesses and residents recently put out a statement about how this would benefit their community.

It is going to come down to these two arguments, who will show the strongest coalition of support and whether those in opposition can effectively make their opposition known to the local board and stop this proposal in its tracks.

Request the final question is there is so much talk about the importance of housing and making the city hospitable to people who already work here.

Is there any indication that any of these potential products would aid in what seems like the bigger issue of New York City being a place where the people who work at these potential casinos live?

>> There are couple of proposals that talk about including a certain number of affordable housing units as part of a larger development that will include a casino.

It is a little bit hard to tell at this point.

We don't have the actual application details about what this looks like.

But Hudson yards for example has talked about -- this was a space that was initially going to include affordable housing units and it has talked about including that into the casino there.

That is a lot of the opposition.

People saying if there is space to be used to build a casino, why not?

Why not use it for sorely needed green space?

>> I believe that is food for thought for all of us.

We look forward to more important to find out how this all shakes out.

Thank you for joining us on MetroFocus.

>> Thank you.

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