Gov. Hochul greenlights legislation for Jake's 58 Casino expansion

Jake's 58 Casino could soon be getting an expansion.Gov. Kathy Hochul signed legislation late Wednesday that will double the number of slot machines there.Players at the casino can soon look forward to an additional 1,000 gaming slots.The Islandia casino opened in 2017. A roughly $200 million expansion of the casino will be ongoing for the next two years.A VIP lounge, sports bar, spa and renovations to the hotel will also be part of the project.Suffolk OTB incoming president Phil Boyle says the legislation will benefit the whole area since the casino allocates the state education fund for direct aid to public schools."It's not a private company getting profits," Boyle says. "All the money the people don't win...goes to our schools."The project will also include a parking garage, which players inside the casino told News 12 they were excited about."I know it's always packed, it could be passed midnight and it's packed so they need a parking garage," said Vicky Impollonia, of North Massapequa.Not everyone is excited about the casino's expansion.Ken Smith can see the casino from his Islandia doorstep and says the traffic is already congested.He has been living in the area since 1985 and enjoys the wooded, secluded area and getting daily visits from deer and other wildlife. Smith is worried that will no longer be the case when construction starts."It's not being done correctly, it's being forced upon families that live here and we weren't notified that they were planning this," Smith said. "We were always told they were never expanding this more than 1,000 machines, they said it was always going to be a mini casino and it will always stay like that said the mayor."News 12 reached out to the village. Mayor Allen Dorman says the village is in the process of reviewing site plans presented by OTB and will follow the site plan review procedures.