After decades of resistance, New York City has finally got its first full-scale casino.
Malaysia-origin Genting Resorts World opened its casino in the Borough of Queens, next to the soon-to-be-shuttered Aqueduct Racetrack, yesterday (April 28), with live games, dealers and the full 360.
Resorts World Queens is the first of the three casinos, who were recently awarded licences, to open.
The other two casinos, Bally’s Bronx site and Steve Cohen’s Hard Rock Metropolitan, also in Queens, are set to open for business in 2030.
Resorts World has been operating as essentially a slots site since 2011.
Excitement
But now it’s offering Baccarat, Blackjack, Craps, Roulette, Poker, all the classics, and the excitement is palpable amongst gamblers who have had to leave the Big Apple to gamble in legal casinos elsewhere, chiefly upstate New York, New Jersey or Vegas.
“I like the tables, I like the atmosphere,” one player told the New York Times. “This place is definitely livelier than other casinos, which makes sense because we’re in New York City.”
The casino–first phase of a US$5.5 billion (£4.07bn) redevelopment of the Aqueduct site, which will expand to 6,000 slot machines, 800 tables, over 30 restaurants and 2,000 hotel rooms–was officially opened by Resorts World executives and Queens-born superstar rapper Nas, who performed his hit “If I Ruled The World (Imagine That)”.
Heavy-hitters
“People have been waiting so long for the first real casino in New York City to open,” another gambler told the NYT. “This city has all kinds of people, and you can see that just by looking around the room.
“Nobody wants to drive two hours to a casino, so you’re going to get a lot of people coming here.”
After years of lobbying, New York State authorities in 2013 finally agreed to allow full casinos to operate in the Big Apple.
But the process was fraught with controversies and legal hurdles as seemingly all of the gambling world’s heavy-hitters from Wynn’s Resorts, Caesars Entertainment, MGM Resorts International, et al, fought tooth-and-nail to win one of only three casino operating licences on offer, pouring tens of millions of dollars into lobbying and endorsements from local personalities such, as Nas, Jay-Z and Black liberation campaigner, the Rev. Al Sharpton.
The three licences were finally awarded by New York’s Gaming Commission in December last year.
