Oswego considering reducing wait before downtown businesses can apply for gaming license

Oswego Village Board trustees next month will vote on a measure that would reduce the amount of time that new restaurants and nonprofit businesses in downtown Oswego have to wait before they can apply for a gaming license.

In February 2024, the Oswego Village Board approved new rules to limit the number of establishments that can offer video gambling in order to control its spread. That includes requiring restaurants, bars and nonprofit businesses to be in business for a year before they can apply for a gaming license.

At the March 18 Oswego Village Board meeting, Oswego Village President Ryan Kauffman and board trustees voted 4-3 to direct staff to bring back a text amendment on April 8 to reduce the one year waiting period for downtown Oswego ancillary and nonprofit establishments to six months.

Voting “yes” was Kauffman along with village trustees Jennifer Jones Sinnott, Tom Guist, and Kit Kuhrt.

Voting “no” were village trustees Karin McCarthy-Lange, Karen Novy and Andrew Torres.

Nash Vegas Saloon and Freddie’s Off The Chain restaurant, which are both in downtown Oswego, had asked the village to reconsider the one-year requirement. Nash Vegas Saloon opened in August 2024 and Freddie’s is set to open its doors on April 1.

Freddie’s applied for a gaming license before the one-year requirement went into effect. Trustees said they would be in favor of a gaming license since it applied before the new rules took effect.

“The restaurant industry has historically operated on thin profit margins and a high rate of failure,” Oswego Village Clerk Tina Touchette said during the meeting. “We know gaming revenue can help offset the restaurants' overall risk by providing them with an additional revenue source.”

Since 2022, the village has received approximately $1.5 million in video gaming revenue. Of that amount, approximately $173,045 was generated from downtown businesses.

Last year alone, the village received $605,000 in video gaming revenue.

“Obviously, everybody understands that restaurants have been struggling for the last few years,” Nash Vegas owner Yonas Lagos said in addressing village trustees. “Post COVID, we haven’t fully recovered. And with our industry dealing with inflation and increasing labor wages, our fighting chances need to be improved by having gaming.”

McCarthy-Lange was against changing the rules.

“The reason that we put the one year (restriction) in place is so that we would have restaurants that added gaming instead of being gaming places that served food,” she said. “That was the whole reason. And I don’t see any reason to change that.”

Novy asked Oswego Economic Development Director Kevin Leighty if the village’s current gaming ordinance inhibited restaurants from locating in the village’s downtown area.

“I can’t say with any certainty one way or the other, if it inhibits or helps with the restaurant establishments,” Leighty said in response.

In voting to support the change, Jones Sinnott said that Nash Vegas Saloon has become a destination point for people.

“There are a lot of people that are coming in on the weekends or they might just be traveling through or staying over for business purposes that are checking out Nash Vegas,” she said.

Guist said amending the rules could help in filling vacant spaces in the downtown, such as the space that previously housed Tap House Grill and the still vacant building that formerly housed Dairy Barn

“It can be to fill up a lot of our commercial space and more quickly bring a Friday night life to our town than what we have right now,” he said.