The New York State Gaming Commission (Commission) has unanimously approved the appointment of Vicki Been as Chair of the New York Gaming Facility Location Board (Board), which is overseeing the commercial casino siting process in the New York Metro region.
“Professor Been’s expertise is tailor-made to guide this process and I am proud to name her Chair of the Gaming Facility Location Board,” said Commission Chair Brian O’Dwyer. “This outstanding team is performing a great public service for which we are all grateful. We look forward to a robust competition for up to three licenses.”
“I am honored to take on this important role and look forward to working with my talented colleagues on the Gaming Facility Location Board to evaluate casino proposals that bring real tangible benefits to their host community and the entire state,” said Board Chair Been. “My colleagues and I are committed to overseeing a fair, transparent and transformative casino siting process.”
Professor Been, a member of the Board since 2022, is the Judge Edward Weinfeld Professor of Law at New York University School of Law, an Affiliated Professor of Public Policy of the NYU Wagner Graduate School of Public Service and a Faculty Director of NYU’s Furman Center for Real Estate and Urban Policy. Professor Been returned to NYU following public service as Commissioner of Housing Preservation and Development for the City of New York and Deputy Mayor for Housing and Economic Development.
Professor Been, who has been on the faculty at NYU since 1990, focuses her scholarship on the intersection of land use, urban policy and housing. Professor Been has done extensive research on New York City’s land use patterns, inclusionary zoning, historic preservation, the interplay of community benefit agreements with land use practices, and on a variety of affordable housing and land use policies, including gentrification, mortgage foreclosure, racial and economic integration, and the effects of supportive housing developments on their neighbors. Professor Been also writes about environmental justice, the Fifth Amendment prohibition against the taking of property without just compensation, and international protections for property owners. Professor Been is the also the co-author of a leading land use casebook, Land Use Controls.
Professor Been holds a bachelor’s degree from Colorado State University and is a graduate of the New York University School of Law, where she was a Root-Tilden Scholar. She clerked for Judge Edward Weinfeld of the Southern District of New York and for Justice Harry Blackmun of the Supreme Court of the United States.
In addition to Professor Been, the Gaming Facility Location Board includes:
- Quenia A. Abreu, President and Chief Executive Officer of the New York Women’s Chamber of Commerce, a not-for-profit membership organization dedicated to empowering and fostering the economic development of women and minorities through business ownership, microenterprise and self-employment.
- Stuart Rabinowitz, Senior Counsel to Meltzer, Lippe, Goldstein & Breitstone, LLP with a focus on state and federal litigation, appellate litigation, constitutional law, civil rights law, voting rights law, education law, including higher education and labor relations and liaison with local, state and federal agencies and officers relating to economic development. Mr. Rabinowitz served on the New York Gaming Facility Location Board in 2014-15.
- Carlos P. Naudon, retired attorney, Certified Public Accountant and Director, President and Chief Executive Officer of Ponce Bank, a federal savings association headquartered in The Bronx, and of its publicly traded parent company, Ponce Financial Group, Inc. He has served as a member of its Board of Directors since 2014 and since 1985 had served as its consultant and regulatory counsel.
The Board is ultimately responsible for reviewing and evaluating casino applications and recommending up to three facilities for licensure. To learn more about the Board and the casino siting process, visit nycasinos.ny.gov.
