Poll: NY voters support casino-gaming amendment, based on ballot language

More than half of New York voters surveyed said they would vote to approve an amendment to the state constitution that would allow construction of non-Indian, Las Vegas–style casinos in New York, based on the ballot language.

A new Siena College Poll of New York voters released today found 55 percent said they would approve it, compared to 42 percent who said they would not.

Respondents replied to a question that provided the specific wording of the amendment on the ballot in November.

On the question, Siena asked respondents if they would vote yes or no to approve an amendment to “allow the legislature to authorize up to seven casinos in New York State for the legislated purposes of promoting job growth, increasing aid to schools, and permitting local governments to lower property taxes through revenues generated.”

However, the Siena poll also found the voters surveyed were evenly divided when responding to a simple question about the issue.

When asked if they “support or oppose passing an amendment to the state constitution to allow non-Indian, Las Vegas–style casinos to be built in New York,” the Siena poll found both 46 percent approving and opposing, which is down from 49 percent support and 42 percent opposition last month.

“Clearly, the wording on the ballot for the casino amendment matters,” Steven Greenberg, Siena College pollster, said in a news release.

“When voters are asked a generic casino gambling amendment question they are evenly divided, with New York City voters opposed and downstate suburban voters and Upstaters mildly supportive. However, when voters were provided the specific wording they will see on the ballot, a majority of voters from every region and from every party say ‘yes,’ they would approve the casino amendment,” said Greenberg.

Besides the proposed casino-gaming amendment, Siena also asked respondents for their thoughts on Gov. Andrew Cuomo.

The survey found 64 percent of respondents view Cuomo “favorably,” and 32 percent view the Democrat “unfavorably.”

Respondents were split on Cuomo’s job-performance rating, with 49 percent rating him either “good” (38 percent) or “excellent” (11 percent), and 50 percent rating him either “fair” (36 percent) or “poor” (14 percent).

The 49 percent job-approval rating is down from 52 percent in August and represents Cuomo’s lowest approval level since taking office, according to Siena.

Siena College conducted the poll between Sept. 22 and Sept. 26 by telephone calls to 807 New York registered voters. It has an overall margin of error of plus or minus 3.4 percentage points.

Siena statistically adjusted the poll sample by age, party, region, and gender to ensure representativeness, the college said.

Contact Reinhardt at ereinhardt@cnybj.com