The New York City casino sweepstakes may kick into high gear as soon as this summer under a bill that passed the state Legislature last week — a measure that was influenced by one of the leading contenders for a lucrative license.
The sweepstakes could even help plug the Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s congestion-pricing hole, one lawmaker believes.
Under the bill, applications for up to three downstate casino licenses will be due by Aug. 31 of this year. That’s more ambitious than the timeframe offered in March by state regulators, who announced they would not ask for applications until mid-2025 to give bidders more time to sort out the local land-use complications particular to each project.
But that timeline angered some bidders eager to cash in on the estimated $2 billion in annual revenue that each facility could generate. Among those angling for an earlier award is Queens-based Resorts World, widely seen as a front-runner since it already operates as a scaled-down slot-machine casino and could quickly open its full-fledged tables upon winning a license.
Gov. Kathy Hochul must still sign the bill, which was sponsored by State Sen. Joseph Addabbo. Addabbo’s Southeast Queens district formerly included Resorts World, and his bill, initially dismissed by some observers as a favor to that casino developer, passed somewhat unexpectedly in the waning hours of last week’s Albany session. A lobbyist for Resorts World appears to have crafted significant parts of the bill, the website New York Focus reported last week.
“I want it done tomorrow,” said Addabbo, a vocal casino supporter, in an interview. He has acknowledged that Resorts World had input in his bill but rejected the suggestion that he was doing the casino’s bidding, saying the company was just one of many parties advocating for a quicker process.
If signed into law, the bill would have no major impact on the final awarding of casino licenses, since it sets a Dec. 31, 2025 deadline that matches the existing timeline laid out by the state’s Gaming Commission. But it does ensure that the public part of the process will get started this year — once applications come in by September, that would get the ball rolling on the six-person, neighborhood-level committees that will review each casino proposal and hold binding votes.
Addabbo’s proposal was initially more aggressive, calling for licenses to be awarded by March 31, 2025. That would have been a potentially fatal blow to projects like Steve Cohen’s in Queens and Bally’s in the Bronx, both of which need local land-use approvals that are unlikely to be resolved by early next year.
But state Assembly and Senate leaders softened Addabbo’s bill before approving it last week. Leaders’ editing also nixed a controversial provision that would have allowed the state to award conditional licenses to bidders who had not yet secured local zoning approvals — a concept that could have sparked legal confusion if a project underwent changes during its local review after having already received a casino license.
A spokesman for Hochul said only that she will review the bill; the Gaming Commission, which is running the casino process, declined to comment. A person closely following casino discussions in Albany told Crain’s that the governor expressed no opposition to Addabbo’s bill, even as the Gaming Commission appeared to resist the idea of altering the process.
Addabbo said his bill makes good on the state’s original intent in 2022, when lawmakers expedited the downstate casino process in hopes of opening applications by 2023.
By setting a firm December 2025 deadline, the bill’s most consequential impact could be removing the slim chance that the licensing process could have dragged on into 2026. But in another potential wild card, Addabbo argues that his bill could be used to help fill the multibillion-dollar budget gap for the Metropolitan Transportation Authority created by Gov. Kathy Hochul’s decision to pause congestion pricing.
Under state law, the MTA is already set to receive up to $1.5 billion in licensing fees that the three winning casino bidders will need to pay. Once the casinos are open, the MTA will continue receiving a portion of the projected $231 million to $413 million in tax revenues that the casinos will generate. (The MTA will get 50% of that revenue for casinos based in New York City, or 40% for any in the surrounding suburbs.)
The law calls for that money to go to the MTA’s operating budget — not its capital budget, which is where Hochul’s congestion pricing backtrack will hit hardest. But Addabbo said the money could be easily redirected if Hochul made a so-called chapter amendment to his bill, which he would support.
“I think this is a fine alternative to congestion pricing,” he said. Still, the expected casino revenue may amount to a small fraction of the $1 billion in guaranteed money that the MTA had expected to receive each year through congestion pricing, which officials planned to bond to $15 billion.
There are 11 known contenders for a downstate casino license, including nine within the city and one each in Nassau County and Yonkers.
Nick Garber , 2024-06-11 21:37:56
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