NY Regulator Appoints Two Female Members to Gaming Facility Location Board

Great news for women everywhere! The New York State Gaming Commission unanimously approved the appointment of the first three members of the board. Two of the board members are female. The board currently consists of Quenia Abreu, Vicki Been, and Stuart Rabinowitz.

The Board Responsibilities

The board will be responsible for reviewing and evaluating commercial casino applications in the US state. In addition, it will recommend up to three new facilities for licensure. In April, New York state lawmakers agreed to plans allowing three casinos in the downstate region. The board will issue a request for applications for any interested casino applicants by January 6^th, 2023. Casino developers have long eyed New York City as a major untapped market, and the bidding process will surely attract plenty of competition.

Commission chairman Brian O’Dwyer, says: “I sincerely appreciate these individuals’ desire to accept this task, which is truly a public service. This competitive process and the resulting projects can lead to a real transformation of communities.”

The Board Members

Quenia Abreu is president and chief executive of the New York Women’s Chamber of Commerce. The group is a not-for-profit organisation dedicated to empowering the economic development of women and minorities. The organisation does this through business ownership, microenterprise, and self-employment.

Before she stepped in in August 2003 to lead the group, she spent time as director of the Women’s Business Center at Queens Economic Development Corporation. In addition, she was also the director of the Women’s Business Resource Center at Hunts Point.

Vicki Been is the Boxer Family Professor of Law at New York University School of Law. She is also an affiliated professor of public policy of the NYU Wagner Graduate School of Public Service. Another title she possesses is of faculty director of NYU’s Furman Center for Real Estate and Urban Policy.

She has returned to NYU following a period serving as the commissioner of housing preservation and development for the City of New York and deputy mayor for housing and economic development.

Although Casino Chick likes to celebrate women, we like to celebrate the achievements of men in the iGaming world as well. So, we will also introduce the third member of the board, next to these two amazing ladies.

Stuart Rabinowitz is senior counsel to the law firm Meltzer, Lippe, Goldstein & Breitstone. He focuses his practice on state and federal litigation, appellate litigation, constitutional law, civil rights law, voting rights law, and education law. This also includes higher education and labour relations and liaison with local, state, and federal agencies relating to economic development.