Layoff Notices Sent Out To 900 Workers At Vernon And Tioga Downs

More than 4,100 casino workers across New York will receive layoff notices this week. About 900 of those workers come from Vernon Downs and Tioga Downs.

The Utica OD is reporting that employees at Tioga Downs, Vernon Downs, Rivers Casino Resorts World Catskills and Resorts World New York City will all receive the notices this week.

Notices had been sent out under the federal WARN Act, which requires employers to provide advance notice of layoffs lasting six months or more. With New York’s private casinos remaining shut down, the casinos issued the notices Monday.

According to the casino owners, layoff notices are being sent this week to:

‒ 1,256 workers at Resorts World Catskills in Monticello, Sullivan County

‒ 955 workers at Resorts World New York City at the Aqueduct Racetrack

‒ About 900 workers at Tioga Downs (west of Binghamton) and Vernon Downs (near Utica)

‒ About 1,000 workers at Rivers Casino in Schenectady

‒ About 1,100 workers at del Lago Resort & Casino in Tyre, Seneca County

Jeff Gural, chairman of the company that owns Tioga Downs and Vernon Downs, has complemented Cuomo on fighting the virus upstate, but, he suggested the state is doing more harm by keeping the New York casinos closed.

“We know for a fact that our customers are not sitting home waiting for us to reopen,” Gural said in a statement. “They are simply getting in their cars and driving to casinos in areas where the transmission rate is far higher.”

In its statement, Resorts World said it plans to implement “advanced filtration systems, noninvasive temperature checks, proper distancing on the gaming floor, and the requirement that masks be worn at all times.”

New York Governor Cuomo has had concerns about casinos, and continues to do so.  Casinos, malls and movie theaters were excluded from Phase 4 of the state’s four-phase reopening plan as the state remained wary of the impact large-scale air-conditioning systems could have on the spread of the virus.