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About Balloon
Scotts Valley filed suit in response. In October 2025, Judge McFadden ruled that Interior had violated the tribe’s due process rights by rescinding the approval without giving prior notice or an opportunity to respond.
However, McFadden’s ruling left the door open for Interior to formally reconsider the underlying gaming eligibility question.
Scotts Valley has maintained that federal officials reversed course under intense political pressure from the Yocha Dehe Wintun Nation, a neighboring tribe that opposes the Vallejo casino development.
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The new Belmont is part of a major restructuring of the New York Racing Association’s operations, with Belmont replacing Aqueduct as the year-round home of downstate thoroughbred racing.
Aqueduct staged its final races June 28, ending a 132-year history at the Queens track. It remained open for simulcast wagering until September 7 before closing permanently.
The new Belmont is significantly different than the sprawling venue it replaced. The former 1.25 million-square-foot grandstand, which had become vastly oversized for the contemporary racing crowd, was demolished to make way for a much smaller, modern facility with a focus on hospitality and premium seating.
How to play Balloon
In any event, successive regulatory tightening and tax increases have already created a “reasonably effective deterrent” to market entry.
There is a second complication. The relentless flow of Commission statements may eventually make enforcement less damaging rather than more.
“The regulatory failures are unhelpful but perhaps the sheer number and regularity of them has made them less remarkable, such that they become ‘wallpaper’,” Waugh says.
