Four Casino Projects Still in the Running for Three Downstate New York Casino Licenses

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The race for three downstate casino licenses is heating up, with four proposals in contention following recent news about all three Manhattan proposals being rejected.

With such a great opportunity to enter the market in a highly populated area, multi-billion-dollar constructions have been proposed that would offer tens of thousands of jobs.

NY Gambling

New York already has a healthy casino industry, with commercial and tribal operations accounting for 34 casinos, with commercial operations generating more than $3 billion. The three additional downstate licenses will boost this significantly. Online casinos are still not legal in the state of New York, but many consumers are still able to access offshore betting sites that offer a wide variety of betting markets and casino games.

Traditional casino games remain popular, while online slots are the highest earners and make use of developing technology to appeal to consumers. Other, more modern alternatives to traditional casino games, like crash games and Plinko, are also making a dent in the market, with readily available Plinko gambling sites providing consumers with a range of game variants.

The popularity of online casinos is something that legislators will be keeping an eye on, and the revenue being lost by states without licensed operations could help the cause.

The Four Casino Projects

The odds are looking good for the remaining projects, with only one set to miss out. The northernmost proposal is the Empire City project in Yonkers, with Bally's proposal located in the Bronx, and the Citi Field and Resorts World NYC proposals both coming from Queens. While it seems likely that only one Queens proposal will be successful, no decisions have been made yet, and each project will be given due consideration.

MGM Resorts is behind the Yonkers Empire City Casino bid, which has been estimated to cost around $2.2 billion to upgrade the existing racino facility. The plan includes an almost 200,000 square-foot casino, as well as bars, restaurants, and a sportsbook facility.

Bally's proposal will include the improvement of existing infrastructure around the Ferry Point golf course, as well as the construction of a casino complex with a square footage exceeding 3 million.

The larger of the two Queens proposals is the Citi Field project that has seen the owner of the Mets, Steve Cohen, team up with Seminole Hard Rock Entertainment to put forward plans that would convert a parking lot and nearby parkland into an entertainment district. This ambitious project has been priced at around $8 billion and would include a large Hard Rock hotel, music venue, park, and community spaces, athletic fields, and more.

The proposal already has strong support from a number of local groups who see the potential in the vision and the benefits of employment and revenue it will bring to the local area.

While the Resorts World New York City proposal isn't as big as the Citi Field alternative, it does have some things in its favour. The plan to upgrade the existing racino facility would create a massive casino, conference centre, and hotel, at a projected cost of $5 billion. Employment is estimated to be boosted by 5,000 during construction, and 5,000 when the work has finished.

Whichever proposal misses out will feel hard done by at this point, with so few proposals making it to this late stage. There will still be a lot of hard work trying to justify their positions, and when the final decision is made, the end product will still be some years away.

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