'Aqueduct Entertainment Group' tabbed slots vendor

[asudevil]

Aqueduct casino operator named
By Matt Hegarty

http://www.drf.com/news/article/110472.html

Government leaders including Gov. David Paterson have selected a wide-ranging partnership that calls itself Aqueduct Entertainment Group to operate a slot-machine casino at Aqueduct racetrack in Ozone Park, N.Y., according to a statement released by Paterson late on Friday.

The selection of Aqueduct Entertainment Group could end a drawn-out selection process that has proceeded in fits and starts over the past several years because of economic and political considerations. The casino was first legalized for Aqueduct late in 2001, and though Delaware North, a casino operator, was selected late in 2008 to operate the casino, the deal fell apart early in 2009 after the company could not make good on promises it had made with the state in its operating agreement.

Aqueduct Entertainment Group includes the Navegante Group, a casino developer headed by Larry J. Woolf, the former chief executive of MGM Grand Hotels; GreenStar Services Corporation, a New York-based construction company; Turner Construction Company, also based in New York; Levine Builders, a New York construction company; the Darman Group, a construction consulting company that bills itself as a "wholly minority-owned firm"; PS&S Design, a construction consulting company; Siemens, the electrical engineering company; and Clairvest Group, a Canadian merchant bank.

Morgan Hook, a spokesperson for Paterson, said the governor's office hopes to hammer out a contract in the next 30 days with AEG covering the obligations for the operation of the casino. After that, construction on the casino could begin, Hook said.