Eight projects are vying for a state license to operate a casino in the lucrative New York City market. Each has dangled the prospect of generational investment in America’s largest metropolitan ...

Eight projects are vying for a state license to operate a casino in the lucrative New York City market.

The area offers natural wonders, country music, shopping, dining, casino gambling and local wine.

Her granddaughter didn’t like the assisted-living center, but 86-year-old Eleanor Willett wanted something that left her money to play the slots at a casino.

Displaced residents and relatives say, despite substandard conditions, it was a place where people from difficult circumstances found each other.