NYS gaming board to vote Monday on whether to grant licenses to 3 remaining casino proposals

More than a dozen companies once promised to bid for one of New York’s three available downstate casino licenses. Eight spent millions of dollars preparing site plans, figuring out zoning and unions and making public presentations.

In the end, just three made it through a regulatory gauntlet and are left standing ahead of Monday’s vote by the state’s Gaming Facility Location Board, where the key question is no longer how many bidders will be left out but rather will the three survivors win approval.

The vote also comes after a decadeslong process and amid trends in which casinos, while still profitable, often aren’t producing as much revenue for local governments as sometimes projected, experts say.

The three remaining competitors are proposing casinos within the borders of New York City but in the outer boroughs: Hard Rock Casino adjacent to Citi Field; Bally’s at Ferry Point in the Bronx; and Resorts World at Aqueduct Racetrack.

The gaming location board will meet at 10 a.m. at a City University of New York facility to cast its vote.

The board doesn’t have to award all three licenses — the law merely says "up to three." If it thinks none qualify, it doesn’t have to award any.

But a leading casino advocate thinks the state should move forward on all three now.

"What would be the benefit of withholding one or two?" Sen. Joseph Addabbo Jr. (D-Queens), chairman of the Senate Gaming Committee. "These are the three left standing because they have complied with everything the state asked of them."

Besides, he noted that the license winners quickly will have to fork over $500 million each, with the money going to the beleaguered Metropolitan Transportation Authority to help fund mass transit improvements.

Each license likely will trigger 1,000 or more construction jobs and even more long-term jobs later.

"What’s the sense of holding licenses on the shelf?" Addabbo said. "You’ve got three licenses. You’ve got three (bidders) left standing, who have complied with everything. So I don’t think it’s in the best interest of the state to be withholding one or two licenses."

The process to get here took more than a decade. A statewide referendum to allow casino development was approved in 2013. State lawmakers set rules to allow four upstate casinos to be built and grow first. The bidding for the downstate ones was delayed but finally opened two years ago.

Along the way, some wondered if New York waited too long, allowing for online gaming to explode and make casinos less lucrative. In the last decade, casinos across the land often have overpromised on revenue they assured when coming into a community.

A 2024 report by the Tax Policy Center found that casinos, in numerous American locations, often aren’t the cash "bonanza" states and local governments are expecting. Revenue is volatile and can decrease over time. Further, it warned: "Casino expansion brings in more revenue, until a saturation point is reached."

But casinos still make money and create local jobs, key supporters and a longtime analyst said.

"The ‘demise of the casino’ is premature," said Bennett Liebman, a government law professor at Albany Law School of Union University and a former member of the state Racing and Wagering Commission, the forerunner to today’s state Gaming Commission.

"They’ve had occasional downturns in Las Vegas and Atlantic City, but the fact they are still there is amazing considering how many casinos there are now across the country," Liebman said.

Whether the three remaining bidders can deliver what they promised is another question.

"There’s still certainly revenue out there," Liebman said. "But whether the locations of the proposed facilities will maximize the amount of jobs and revenue from casinos, that is the question."

Here’s a snapshot of the three remaining bidders:

Bally’s Bronx

The site, near the foot of the Whitestone Bridge, is a golf course formerly owned by President Donald Trump — which has raised questions. According to the acquisition deal with the Trump Organization, Bally’s would pay it a $115 million windfall if the site wins a casino license.

Bally’s has said it would spend $4 billion on a casino/resort and has promised a 500,000-square-foot gambling facility and says it could make $1 billion in gambling revenue, $1.5 billion from the entire resort.

Besides the casino, the project would include a 500-room hotel, a 2,000-person "events center," conference space and retail shops.

Metropolitan Park

The partners include Mets owner Steve Cohen and Hard Rock Entertainment. They proposed $8 billion development, including a casino, a 2,300-room hotel, a concert venue, athletic fields and park space — as well as a "Taste of Queens" food hall with dozens of local vendors. It would be located at a converted Citi Field parking lot, near the Mets stadium.

The partners promise $3.9 billion in revenue by year three of opening and $850 million in annual tax revenue.

Resorts World/Aqueduct

This project long has been considered the most likely to win a license because the backers already operate a highly successful video slot machine parlor at the racetrack and could open faster than any competitor.

Genting, the giant Malaysian gambling company that operates Resorts World, says it could begin casino operations by July; the full project would be completed in January 2029.

Besides a casino, Genting proposed a 2,300-room hotel, a 7,000-seat arena, more than 30 food and beverage outlets, athletic fields and park space. Resorts World already pulls in $1 billion in annual revenue at Aqueduct — and Genting says that would rocket to $4 billion with a full casino/resort operation.

By Yancey Roy

yancey.roy@newsday.com@yanceyroy