Bids to open casinos in New York City will not open up until 2025, state officials announced Monday, finally putting a firm timeline on what has been a sluggish run-up to the eagerly awaited process.
Armies of lobbyists, developers and gaming executives have been waiting anxiously since 2022 for word on when applications will open up for the three licenses that will be awarded in and around the five boroughs. Although some had hoped the sweepstakes might open up this spring, Robert Williams, executive director of the state’s Gaming Commission, said Monday that the state would wait for all applicants to finish the lengthy environmental reviews they are required under state law, as well as the additional land-use hurdles that a handful of projects need to overcome to develop their specific sites.
The state could have triggered a 30-day deadline for applications to come due by posting answers to a second round of questions that had been posed by the casino bidders. But Williams said that starting the process now would only force the bidders to submit reams of paperwork that they would then need to revise once the various reviews are wrapped up, likely in mid-2025.
“The establishment of an early [application] filing would require continual update of all market-based responses, and all financial answers will likely have to be modified over time,” Williams said. “This would pose an administrative nightmare.”
News of the pushed-back timeline will only prolong the lobbying bonanza that has surrounded the casino process for months, as applicants try to win over the local officials who will serve on the six-member panels that will vote on each project. Those Community Advisory Committees will also form by mid-2025, Williams said.
One lobbyist involved in the casino process said they were unsurprised by Monday’s announcement, given how many applicants still need to get their ducks in a row before applying. In fact, the new timeline still seems “pretty aggressive,” the lobbyist said, and reflects the state’s desire to start reeling in tax revenues from the casinos as soon as possible.
Meanwhile, an effort to change the city’s own zoning code to align with the state casino process cleared one of its final hurdles last week, when the City Planning Commission sent the proposal to the City Council for a vote before the end of May. The council is likely to support the change, which would essentially mass-legalize casinos rather than force each one to pass through a lengthy rezoning before even being considered by the state.
Still, Williams said four known contenders need to get the city to sign off on land-use changes for their projects to be viable. Those projects are the Related Companies’ Hudson Yards bid, Steve Cohen’s Willets Point project, Thor Equities’ Coney Island bid, and Bally’s proposed casino at the former Trump Golf Links in the Bronx.
Casino applications were supposed to start rolling in as early as 2022, when state lawmakers accelerated the timeline that was set out in the 2013 state referendum in which voters legalized casino gambling in New York. In getting the ball rolling, officials were eager to unlock an expected $200 million to $400 million in annual tax revenues that the casinos are expected to produce, which will fund public transit, schools and property tax relief — on top of the $500 million license fee that each of the ultimate winners will need to pay.
But regulators have seemingly moved at a snail’s pace in the ensuing months to get the process underway, as they composed responses to a first round of more than 600 procedural questions that had been posed by applicants.
Williams, of the Gaming Commission, countered on Monday that the state has not been delayed at all, since the state has not budgeted for casino revenues to start hitting its coffers until 2026.
“Thus, the process remains ahead of schedule,” he said.
After applications are filed next year, Williams said the final decision on the three licenses will be made in “late 2025” by the state’s Gaming Facility Location Board. That group, supposed to ultimately contain five members, currently has only four.
There are 11 known contenders for a downstate casino license, including nine within the city and one each in Nassau County and Yonkers. Local developers have teamed up with gaming companies on most of the bids, like Silverstein Properties and Greenwood Gaming on Manhattan’s West Side or SL Green and Caesars in Times Square.
The next big step will come in April or May, when the City Council votes on the zoning change that would bring city laws in line with the state process. Both Mayor Eric Adams and City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams support the change, which they say would ensure city-based projects are not at a competitive disadvantage compared to those in the suburbs — but some have objected to the proposals’ details, which would put no restrictions on casinos’ size and allow developers to tack on “related” facilities like hotels, which are normally strictly regulated.
Nick Garber , 2024-03-25 20:48:39
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