New York, NY – Although there’s growing concern over the future of upstate casinos, they have generated 
both income and jobs to thousands of New Yorkers. Under the present agreement, Buffalo and City of Niagara Falls received 6.25 percent of the state’s 25 percent share of the revenue from the machines at the facilities. James Cahill, president of the New York State Building and Construction Trades Council, has stated that the real success of the ventures has been ignored. He adds that more than 1,700 construction workers put in approximately 550,000 hours of work on the new casino at Schenectady. In addition, besides those in the building trades, thousands of workers have gained both directly and indirectly from the Governor Cuomo’s casino expansion plan.
“With those workers earning between $42 and $64 per hour, they took in around $31 million in wages, health care and pension benefits. It’s also worth mentioning the project was on time, within budget, and resulted in no major construction injuries,” he said, “And that’s likely because a Project Labor Agreement governed the working conditions and ensured a highly trained and skilled workforce.”
