The appetite for gambling in New York, the “City That Never Sleeps”, is vast and compelling.
Just look at the Empire State boom in online sports books since legalisation; which despite a punitive 51 percent tax regime that would crush most other jurisdictions still accounts for handles well in excess of US$2 billion month-after-month; the biggest state sweep in the USA.
Building on this success, the Big Apple is now fixed on opening three new integrated real-world casino resorts in the metropolis.
Amid the frenzy, and competing 11 bids for just three casino licences, it’s perhaps too easy to overlook one crucial rider: What about New York City’s entrenched Mafia and their hitherto iron grip on Gotham’s gambling rackets?
May this explain why it’s taking so long to decide winners and losers of–potentially–the biggest prizes in world gaming?
Or may the presence of New York City’s notorious “Five Families” perhaps explain the hitherto low-key status of legal gambling in the sprawling metropolis, until the advent of regulated sports betting across the Empire State in January 2022.
Cosa Nostra
New York State, itself, has long had a score–of mostly Indian Tribal–bricks and mortar casinos but the Big Apple, home of Times Square and anything-goes, remarkably has, to date, only one casino – Resorts World, in the further outreaches of Queens. Another casino is attached to the Yonkers race track in Westchester County, outside NYC; but albeit within the built metropolitan embrace.
Hitherto that yearning gap for shooting craps, high-stakes poker, the numbers racket–and yes prediction markets, before they were formalised–was filled by New York’s crime families, as depicted in hundreds of noir gangster movies.
In 2023 in sports wagers alone, it’s estimated that New York State lost nearly US$2 billion (£1.54bn) in revenue to illegal, Mafia-controlled sportsbooks. So said gaming data crunchers Yield Sec and the Campaign for Fairer Gambling in a joint report.
Given the nefarious nature of the business it’s all too easy to bandy about outsized figures. But you, esteemed reader, get the drift: illegal gambling is worth billions and billions.
Hot Race
But now equally powerful forces, also backed by billions of dollars, are knocking on the door of Big Apple gaming opportunity.
Beyond the criminal complicity, there are 11 very rich and very influential heavy-hitters vying for one of only three coveted licences on offer. And this before they’ve begun the arduous planning trek through labyrinthine zoning regimes, each singular, if not idiosyncratic, in New York’s five boroughs.
Each bid must then pass verification from a so-called Community Advisory Committee, which is made up of local and state representatives from the respective New York borough; be it Manhattan, the Bronx, Brooklyn or Queens. Staten Island, NYC’s fifth borough, is not in the mix.
Technically, the New York Gaming Commission has the final say on licensing but has publicly stated that it will not overrule the board unless there is an issue with an applicant.
Current leaders in the hot race are Resorts World NYC, owned by the Malaysia-origin Genting Group, and Empire City Casino of MGM Resorts International.
In a US$8 billion plan (£6.17bn), Resorts World is proposing to triple the size of its existing casino resort, adjoining the Aqueduct horse race track in South Ozone Park, Queens, to three million square feet; adding another hotel, conference centre and 7,000-seat sports arena and creating 5,000 new permanent jobs.
Resorts World affirms it is already New York state’s largest taxpayer, having generated over US$4 billion (£3bn) since opening in 2011 and they say that permitting their expansion would generate billions more.
Celebrity Rapper
They have strong local backing, the blessing of celebrity rapper Nas and the critical political support of pro-gaming State Senator Joseph Addabbo (D), Chair of the Racing, Gaming and Wagering Committee.
“Resorts World casino has not only been part of economic development, as we talked about, but community development. Resorts World has been a true partner in every sense for this community,” Queens Borough President Donovan Richards told iGamingFuture.
Added Queens community leader Betty Braton: “[They] came into our community more than a dozen years ago, and every day since has been a dedicated neighbor who shows up, hears our feedback, and responds to our needs.
“They have been with us in good times and tough times ever since, giving both financial support and their time to this community.
“I know this partnership will only continue as Resorts World answers the immediate needs but also presents a vision for the future.”
The other front-running project is MGM Resorts International’s Empire City in Yonkers, technically not in New York City but still an integral part of the greater NYC metropolitan sprawl.
Momentous Opportunity
MGM opened their casino here at the storied Yonkers Raceway–home of iconic harness horse race trotting since 1899–over 20-years-ago.
They want to gain a full licence and expand the property to provide live tables to add to the existing electronic video terminals and lottery machines, and open a sportsbook with a 112-foot wrap-around LED screen, multiple food and beverage outlets, meeting spaces, et al.
The company says a fully-fledged casino would generate more than US$1 billion-a-year (£763m) in new economic activity and create some 10,000 direct or associated jobs.
“This is a momentous opportunity for the City of Yonkers,” asserts Yonkers Mayor Mike Spano. “And I’m excited for the future, knowing the development of MGM Empire City will create thousands of good-paying union jobs and the economic growth that will ensure our city continues to flourish and prosper.
“Already drawing millions of guests annually, this development plan will solidify Empire City’s status as a premier entertainment destination.”
Push-back
John Sabini, a former Chair of New York State’s Racing and Wagering Board, confirms the Yonkers and Queens bids are the current favourites in the bidding war, “because both are existing casinos that have already proved their economic worth and enjoy strong local and political support”.
Of the remaining nine other New York City casino bids, most face some kind of push-back, either from powerful politicians or citizen groups.
With the three licences, each costing US$500 million (£385.91m) set to be issued later this year, Las Vegas Sands Chair and CEO Rob Goldstein is now also raising concerns about the company’s US$6 billion casino-resort proposal for Long Island (£4.63bn).
An Offer You Can’t Refuse
Goldstein believes the very real prospect of New York State fully regulating 360 iGaming seriously impacts the long-term financial viability of his project.
“We remain interested in the process,” says Goldstein “but you can’t ignore [the explosive growth of iGaming in] New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Michigan.”
Even the megawatt pulling power of rap superstar and billionaire music mogul Jay-Z, Brooklyn born and bred, is not enough to get a proposed US$4 billion (£3.08bn) casino tower in Times Square, in the very entertainment heart of the city, over the line.
A “No Times Square Casino Coalition” of local businesses, neighbourhood associations and theatrical unions are adamantly opposed to the joint Caesars Entertainment-SL Green Realty project.
The remaining casino projects–US$18 billion (£13.9bn) Freedom Plaza, Bally’s confected Monte Carloesque casino atop swanky Saks Fifth Avenue, a US$6 billion plan (£4.63bn) by the Sands Corp. to develop a 72-acre site in Uniondale, Long Island, into a casino resort and a project to redevelop Hudson Yards on the far West Side of Manhattan into “The Avenir” by Silverstein Properties and Greenwood Gaming/Parx Casino–have all been confidentially dismissed as “no-hopers” by casino industry insiders and New York regulators.
State Senator Addabbo notes that by the time the licences are issued it “would have taken us longer than it took to build the Empire State Building — and that was 80-years-ago!”
With legal gambling–online sports betting, 360 iGaming and real-world casinos–now set to irrevocably replace the gangsters who once controlled the business, the days of pressing “I’m going to make you an offer you can’t refuse” appear long gone.
