The prolonged effort to bring casino gambling to New York City is poised to enter its final act on Monday after more than a decade, with a state board scheduled to recommend licenses for as many as three full-fledged casinos.
The New York Gaming Facility Location Board is set to gather at 10 a.m. at the City University of New York’s Graduate Center in Manhattan to issue its recommendations.
Conventional wisdom has it that since the state needs revenue, and the licensure fees would bring in more than $1.5 billion, the board will most likely recommend that all of the three remaining competitors receive licenses.
After the five-person Location Board issues its recommendations to the state’s gaming commission, the commission will vote on them by the end of the month. Absent some unexpected and highly unusual circumstance, the commission is expected to follow the board’s recommendations.
Gambling companies have been salivating for more than a decade to gain access to the nation’s biggest untapped casino market.
In 2013, New York State voters authorized a constitutional amendment allowing up to seven casinos in the state, with up to three reserved for the New York City area. The four upstate casinos were given a yearslong head start. Now, it’s New York City’s turn.
Former Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo championed the expansion of casino gambling, arguing that it would spur economic development and that New York might as well capture some of the tax revenue that New York gamblers were generating in other places.
Eight competitors took part in the state’s grueling public review process. Ultimately, four made it past that stage, only for one to prematurely bow out. That left three bids for three licenses: Bally’s, Hard Rock Hotel & Casino and Resorts World New York City.
Bally’s is proposing to build a gambling complex and hotel in the Bronx, and has estimated that its development will attract more than 9 million visitors a year, generate nearly $400 million in annual tax revenue and support nearly 4,000 permanent jobs. Its casino would also benefit President Trump, who used to lease the city-owned land on which the facility would rise.
As part of the Trump Organization’s sale of its remaining interest in the site to Bally’s, the casino company promised to pay the Trump Organization $115 million should it win a casino license.
Steve Cohen, the hedge fund manager who owns the Mets, has partnered with Hard Rock International on a proposal for Queens that the developers claim will ultimately result in more than $1 billion a year in tax revenue and more than 6,000 permanent jobs.
Resorts World New York City, part of a Malaysian entertainment conglomerate, is looking to expand its existing electronic gambling emporium in Queens into a full-scale casino, which it claims will produce 5,000 permanent jobs and more than $1 billion a year in tax revenue.
Studies indicate such promises often do not pan out.
Dana Rubinstein covers New York City politics and government for The Times.
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