Wynn Resorts and Las Vegas Sands dropped out prematurely, leaving a so-called lucky eight operators to contest the three open slots to run New York’s first full-on Big Apple casinos.
It’s crunch time for NYC’s aspiring real-world casino-resort runners.
The Deadline Day for final applications passed at the end of last month, June, and the final result, after due consideration by the New York state’s Gaming Facility Location Board and a round of public hearings, will be announced on December 1.
Hot runners are Vegas leviathan MGM Resorts International and Malaysia-origin Genting Group, along with the heavily contested Caesars Entertainment, SL Green Realty Corp, Jay-Z Roc Nation combo, Caesars Palace Times Square.
MGM and Genting have the added advantage of already running hybrid “racinos”–racetracks with gambling facilities for slots, card games, et cetera–in Yonkers and Queens, respectively.
Trump Links
Also poised to take advantage–and in this era would we have it any other way?–is the Trump Organisation, which stands to get a US$115 million pay-off (£83.75m) if Bally’s Bronx at Port Ferry makes the final cut, because the proposed site is currently a public golf course once owned by He who should be obeyed at all times.
The Caesars Palace Times Square joint-venture, meantime, although bedevilled by public protest and controversy, would bring the lure and magic of full 360 casino-resorts to the very heart of world entertainment: The Great White Way, Broadway, The Deuce, called it what you will.
Another front-runner is a joint proposal by Hard Rock International and Steven Cohen, the owner of the New York Mets baseball team, to build a casino on 50-acres of parking lots surrounding Citi Field, home of the Mets, in the Borough of Queens at the western end of Long Island.
For a full and detailed proposal list of runners and riders in the Great New York Casino Race, please click here:
The other applicants for the three available licences include a group called Avenir, planning a casino resort on a vacant lot near the Javits Convention Center, Manhattan, made up by World Trade Center developer Larry Silverstein, Rush Street Gaming and Greenwood Gaming and Entertainment; Freedom Plaza, submitted submitted by the Soloviev Group, a proposal from the Mohegan Tribe, and a development designed to revive fabled Coney Island.
Remaining Hurdles
Each casino-resort proposal has its own singular political, and zoning, challenges.
The next hurdle for the applicants is to vault the statutory reviews of nominated Community Advisory Committees (CAC) and then obtain full land-use, zoning and environmental approvals.
CAC’s will give their decision by September 30.
Winners will be announced by December 1.
And the three precious licences awarded on December 31 – ready to rock ‘n roll by the first day of 2026.
Watch this space!
