Nassau OTB is betting yet again on Resorts World

Daily Point

Live casino at Aqueduct upends VLT deal

As Resorts World New York City opens its full-fledged casino Tuesday, offering table games with live dealers, the international casino giant won't be the only one raking in the big bucks.

Nassau County expects to benefit too. The only question is: How much?

Nassau OTB and Genting, the owner of Resorts World, have had an arrangement dating back to 2016 to operate at Aqueduct 1,000 video lottery terminals that Nassau had been granted by New York State. The deal was made after former Nassau County Executive Ed Mangano failed to find a location in the county for a gambling venue that neighboring communities would accept. In contrast, Suffolk OTB operates its only VLT operation at Jake’s 58 in Islandia.

As of last year, that deal provided Nassau OTB with $31.4 million a year — a figure that has increased over time to meet inflationary trends.

But Nassau OTB President Joe Cairo told The Point last week that even when the two parties first did that deal, everyone recognized the possibility that Resorts World might grow its vast space into a full casino. They called it a "material beneficial event," which would allow for the deal to be renegotiated.

"We both realized and thought that someday there would be a casino downstate, and that they may get one, which in fact happened," Cairo told The Point on Thursday. "Both sides envisioned that 10 years ago."

Once Resorts World received a downstate casino license in December, both parties knew the time had come to renegotiate, and adjust the payments, said Cairo, who is also chair of the Nassau County Republican Committee.

Cairo told The Point that representatives from Nassau and the casino giant met several weeks ago to determine next steps. Resorts World officials pledged to draft a new agreement and increase the payout. Initially, Cairo said last week that he had hoped to have a proposed revised deal in the coming days. 

But Monday, Cairo said Resorts World officials had sought a delay, citing the busy start of their new casino. 

"We've had a very good working relationship over the past 10 years with Genting and with Aqueduct, so I understand that they've been so busy," Cairo said. "They're getting ready for the opening and they haven't had a chance to sit down and figure it out."

But the timing was a key concern.

By Tuesday, the video lottery terminals themselves will have to turn off and the existing hosting agreement will terminate. During the downstate casino competition, the state Gaming Commission made clear in FAQs and other material that any winner of a downstate casino license couldn't operate at the same site both the VLT-style gaming facility that is designed to operate without live dealers, and a full-fledged casino with table games.

Nonetheless, Cairo and Resorts World officials have agreed that the casino giant will continue to pay the county OTB under the terms of the existing agreement until a new one is reached, Cairo said Monday. 

"This isn't something that's going to drag on," Cairo said. "It's in both parties' interest that we come to an agreement sooner rather than later."

Cairo said he's hoping that happens within the next month.

A new deal between Nassau OTB and Resorts World could be reached that allows for revenue sharing without the machines themselves operating, Cairo confirmed. And Cairo said last week that he wants to stick with Resorts World as a partner. 

"We've had a very good cordial relationship with them for the past 10 years, and we don't expect it to change," Cairo said.

As recently as December, Cairo has suggested the possibility of moving Nassau's VLTs back to the confines of the county, and even that VLTs could end up at the renovated Belmont Park.

But on Monday, Cairo said he wouldn't commit to a decision on the future of the machines until he saw what Resorts World offered.

"Right now, it's a question I wouldn't want to address. I think it's premature," Cairo said. "I think it all depends upon the bottom line."

But Cairo noted that any change in the deal should reflect the difference in revenue expectations between a VLT facility and a full casino.

"I think that's going to be significant."

— Randi F. Marshall randi.marshall@newsday.com

Pencil Point

Mailbox breed

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Quick Points

State budget watch, prediction markets style

• The state budget is 26 days late as of Monday, April 27. Even prediction betting markets can't make a buck on that sucker bet.
• Speaking of prediction markets, what's the over/under on more scandals rocking the industry? A U.S. soldier was indicted after allegedly making $400,000 on Polymarket by using confidential information to accurately predict that Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro would be captured. Also, a mysterious spike in temperatures at a France airport is being blamed on prediction market gambling. All while states and Congress consider regulations. Is there a bet on Congress regulating insider trading for politicians?
• It's been a red-letter week for the printed word. The Los Angeles Unified School District announced it would set screen time limits; a copy of Homer's "The Iliad" was discovered in a tomb in Egypt; and on Long Island, rare books and letters by John Keats, James Joyce and Oscar Wilde that had been stolen decades ago from the Whitney Estate in Manhasset were returned. Long Island students took to social media to enthusiastically proclaim: "DKDC."
• Buying a house on Long Island can be more contentious than a Smithtown Town Board meeting, but this is getting ridiculous. Newsday's news division reported a Selden house for $329,000 with — wait for it — zero bedrooms and 446 square feet. That's not a house; it's an exorbitantly priced walk-in closet.
• As if we don't already have enough jump-scares in the news, Stony Brook researchers announced last week that flesh-eating bacteria and runoff from hundreds of thousands of cesspools are threatening our waters just in time for summer. Makes you miss winter.

— Mark Nolan mark.nolan@newsday.com

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