Managing Editor
On December 1, the New York Gaming Facility Location Board confirmed that it will recommend the remaining three downstate casino license applicants to the state Gaming Commission. The process of soliciting bids for the three full-scale casino resorts has taken years, but is now approaching the finish line. The NY Gaming Commission can now conduct its own review of Bally’s, Resorts World, and Hard Rock and their development partners and begin issuing licenses, after which construction can get underway.
There had originally been eight contenders for the three licenses. However, by the time the Location Board conducted its final review, the decision was looking like a foregone conclusion. Only four applicants managed to win over their respective Community Advisory Committees in an earlier stage of the process.
Of those, MGM Resorts — considered a shoo-in from the start — shocked the gambling world by announcing the last-minute withdrawal of its proposal. The company said that its economic analysis of the situation had changed and that it no longer deemed it to be profitable to upgrade its existing Empire City slots facility in Yonkers.
Theoretically, the Location Board could have recommended a smaller number of casinos. However, if it wanted to advance three plans as originally anticipated, that meant there was no longer any choice in the matter. The only three available were:
- Hard Rock Metropolitan Park
- Bally’s Bronx
- Resorts World New York City (Queens)
At the meeting, Board member Vicki L. Bean said:
The Board wants to extend its appreciation to all applicants for their significant effort with the communities and their commitment to support economic development in New York. We congratulate the selected applicants and with them success in the Comission licensing process and in their operation of the proposed facilities.
Keep Reading
Next Steps
Official selection by the Location Board doesn’t mean construction can begin on the resorts right away. There are still a few steps required, the most important of them being the issuance of licenses by the New York State Gaming Commission.
At a press conference after the meeting, one reporter asked whether the licensing would be effectively a “rubber stamp” process. Bean rejected that notion:
It is not a rubber stamp, I can tell you, having spent many, many hours with the Gaming Commission team. They are an incredibly hard-working, dedicated, thorough, exacting and tough group to get through. They ask the right questions. They evaluate information in an incredibly perceptive way.
Fielding a separate question about the 2013 insider trading allegations against Mets owner Steven Cohen, who is involved with Hard Rock’s proposal, Bean clarified that those types of issues are the ones that the Gaming Commission will consider as part of its “character and fitness” evaluation.
For its part, the Location Board still needs to submit a report detailing the rationale for its selections. It has 30 days to do so. Despite there only being three licenses for three applicants, the Board still needs to fulfill its legislative obligation to explain the merits of each project, with the following weighting:
- 70% economic activity and business development factors
- 10% impact on host and nearby municipalities
- 10% workforce enhancement factors
- 10% diversity framework
Bean explained that each operator’s promises in those regards will become part of the terms of its licensing agreement with the Commission. The Commission will then have the duty to hold the operators to their commitments.
Nearly $15 Billion in Value to New York
The Location Board’s assessment is that, between them, the three casino-resort projects will generate about $7 billion in direct gaming tax revenue over their first 10 years of operation. That’s in addition to their up-front licensing fees of $500 million apiece. Bean said the projects were also expected to generate another $5.9 billion in non-gaming taxes through their attached hotels and other amenities.
Putting those all together equates to $14.4 billion going into public coffers, most of that earmarked for education and the Metropolitan Transit Authority.
Bean emphasized that those figures came not from operators’ forecasts, but from independent contractors the Board had instructed to be “very conservative.”
Reporters at the press conference still expressed numerous concerns about the projects. Many of these pertained to problem gambling. However, one reporter asked whether the presence of the casinos could make local rents less affordable.
Bean responded:
The environmental review process does look at socio-demographic factors, including housing affordability and community displacement impacts. It did not find that there was a threat, in part because each of the operators made serious commitments to local hiring.
The advancement of the licensing process is indirectly good news to those hoping to see legal online gambling in New York. Retail casino unions oppose Sen. Joe Addabbo’s online poker and casino efforts out of fears of job loss. Although they’ll become more powerful with the added membership the new retail casinos bring, the hiring spree may help mitigate job security worries. More importantly, however, Gov. Kathy Hochul has said she won’t even talk about iGaming until the downstate casino issue is settled. Now that construction is poised to commence, she may be more willing and able to bring unions to the table in 2026.
