Navegante Group Wins 

The Navegante Group, teamed up with the Aqueduct Entertainment Group, is pleased to be chosen to run the slot machines at New York’s Aqueduct Race Track. The company says that they think it has a lot to do with the fact that the members of their company have New York ties – and this was their way of keeping it in the family. The fact that they won the right to do it is amazing, and they could not be happier as they know that there are millions to be made off of the deal. 

The company says that they have spent time in the community and that their partners understand New York, so it made sense for them to handle the slot machines. New York Governor David Paterson has awarded the 30 year contract to the AEG group as he felt that they were going to handle it the best. There were four other groups vying for the slot machine license, but AEG came out on top. 

They are now getting ready to meet with the state’s lottery authorities so that they have a memo of understanding between the two groups. They now have to negotiate a payment structure of the upfront fee of $300 million. This is an exciting time as experts say that there could conceivably be $1 million earned a day on the slot machines.  

The fight to get the slot machine contract was a good one, and each of the groups kept upping the ante to try and get the deal. But in the end it was New York’s own hometown boys that got the win. Many Wall Street analysts thought that a larger casino group would get the contract, and they said that they thought it was all politics as usual and that those that won may not have necessarily deserved it.