New York Boosts Odds of Tax Jackpot With 3 Big Apple Casino Licenses

In the casino business, they say the house always wins. But what if the house belongs to the New York Mets?

Hedge fund billionaire Steve Cohen, who’s owned the long–suffering, meltdown-prone MLB franchise since 2020, won a license to build a casino near the team’s stadium in Queens on Monday. Rhode Island-based gambling company Bally’s and Malaysian resort operator Genting Group were also awarded licenses in a sweeping expansion of legalized gambling in America’s largest city.

Roulette-about It

The New York State Gaming Commission has a remit to offer up to three new casino licenses. Bids in Manhattan initially drew the most publicity, but the island home to NoHo was a NoGo. A $5.4 billion Times Square casino proposal by Caesars Palace, which riled local residents and Broadway theater owners, was voted down by a community advisory committee in September. So was a $7 billion bid for one on Manhattan’s West Side by Silverstein Properties and an $11 billion East Side bid from Soloviev Group.

In October, MGM unexpectedly withdrew an application to expand its horse-racing track in suburban Yonkers into a full-fledged casino, leaving the three outer-borough bids approved Monday. Cohen’s $8 billion project, with casino partner Hard Rock International, will also add a concert venue, convention center, shopping and restaurants to what is now a parking lot next to the Mets’ Citi Field. Genting plans to expand an existing slots casino at its Aqueduct racetrack in Jamaica (the Queens neighborhood, not Peter Tosh’s homeland). Bally plans to build a casino, hotel and retail complex at the site of its Jack Nicklaus-designed golf course in the Bronx. The key question now, which you can imagine being asked in Archie Bunker’s thick Queens accent, is “What’s in it for me?”

• Cohen’s group has made big promises for its project, slated to open in 2030, including 17,000 construction jobs and 6,000 permanent ones. It’s also projecting $3.9 billion in revenue in its third year, generating some $850 million in taxes.
• Consultants hired by the Gaming Commission’s location board estimated the three new casinos will together bring the state $7 billion in gaming taxes and $6 billion in other taxes from 2027 to 2036.

Oh, Craps! On the other hand, the Tax Policy Center found last year that tax revenues from US casinos and racinos have risen only modestly in the past four decades, which can limit their ability to plug budget gaps like the one at the Metropolitan Transit Authority. Even if you win big, the subway fare home may well keep going up.