Column: Polls show 'strong' support for non-Indian gaming

Voters like the idea of expanding gambling through seven new casinos, according to a number of private polls, including a new one underwritten by a group hoping to build a $500 million project 85 minutes south of Albany.

If his pollster is on target, Michael R. Treanor thinks the referendum to legalize casinos on the Nov. 5 ballot statewide will pass handily, especially since Proposition 1's language has been written to tie amending the state constitution — which now prohibits gambling — to jobs, public education and reduced property taxes.

In the survey underwritten by Treanor's firm Nevele Investors LLC, the group trying to bring a casino to the shuttered former Nevele hotel resort in Ellenville, Ulster County, 53.8 of those polled supported Gov. Andrew Cuomo's proposed amendment. It would allow for casinos in areas outside markets where three Native American gaming tribes operate in New York. Treanor said the support grew when the questions were framed to suggest the casinos would benefit economic development. They rose higher, to 69 percent in favor, if those surveyed were told the project involved a resort destination project not located in a city.