Gaming giants and real-estate honchos are putting all their chips on the table to win one of three coveted licenses to operate a casino in or around New York City.
“There’s still a large market for land-based casinos in this country and the New York City metropolitan market in particular,” said Albany Law School Professor Bennett Liebman, a former deputy secretary to the governor for gaming and racing, to The Post.
Gaming interests have already spent millions of dollars on lobbying and media consultants to make their case to local and state officials as deadlines creep closer to submit bids next year.
Here are the deep-pocketed contenders:
MANHATTAN
Location: Hudson Yards
Name: Wynn New York City
Developer: Related Companies/Wynn Resorts.
Details: $12 billion casino complex that includes a hotel, office space, apartments, and a 5.6-acre park
Pros: Boost to adjacent Javits Convention Center, views of Hudson River, access to the High Line
Cons: Friends of the High Line are spearheading community opposition, local elected officials not enthused by project, either.
Location: Times Square
Name: Caesars Palace Times Square
Developer: Caesars Entertainment, SL Green and Jay-Z Roc Nation
Details: $4 billion casino complex that would be built at 1515 Broadway in the heart of Times Square.
Pros: Jay-Z curates the entertainment, and there’s access to the Great White Way.
Cons: Opposition from theater producers — the Broadway League — and the No Times Square coalition that includes neighborhood groups
Location: Far West Side
Name: Avenir
Developer: Silverstein Properties/Greenwood Gaming and Entertainment
Details: World Trade Center developer Larry Silverstein is spearheading the plan, which involves a 1.8 million-square-foot project for a hotel, casino, entertainment and residential complex on vacant land at West 41st Street and 11th Avenue, just north of the Jacob Javits Center.
Pros: As with Wynn NYC, the Avenir would be a boost to the Javits Convention Center and tourism industry.
Cons: Overcoming local opposition will be a challenge.
Location: Fifth Avenue
Name: Saks Fifth Avenue Casino
Developer: Saks Fifth Avenue and Hudson’s Bay Company
Details: The luxury department store at 611 Fifth Ave. between East 49th and East 50th streets — next to St. Patrick’s Cathedral — wants to bring high-rollers to the home of high fashion on the top floors of its flagship building.
Pros: Increased foot traffic for a Fifth Avenue hurt by the COVID-19 pandemic
Cons: Community opposition. Would need divine intervention to locate a casino next to New York’s most cherished Catholic church
Location: Midtown East River
Name: Freedom Plaza
Developer: City real-estate scion Stefan Soloviev and Mohegan Sun
Details: Four towers along the East River that would include apartments and hotels with an underground casino
Pros: Bid includes a “Freedom Museum” and 6.7 acres of green space
Cons: Opposition from local politicians
QUEENS
Location: South Ozone Park-Jamaica
Name: Resorts World New York City at Aqueduct
Developer: Genting/Resorts World Casino
Details: The bidder, which already owns an existing slots parlor, has proposed a $5 billion plan that includes a pitch to expand its current operations and also offer live table games such as black jack and craps. The proposal includes a new 7,000-seat concert venue and sports training facility.
Pros: Its slots parlor, which opened in 2011, has generated more than $4 billion for state coffers, and its bid has strong local community and political support.
Cons: Resorts World Las Vegas — a separate casino that is part of the same Genting empire — is ensnared in an alleged illegal bookmaking scandal involving the interpreter of baseball superstar Shohei Ohtani.
Location: Willets Points/Flushing Meadows/Corona
Name: Metropolitan Park
Developer: Mets owner Steve Cohen and Hard Rock International
Details: Sprawling $8 billion gaming center, hotel and music venue near the Mets’ Citi Field stadium.
Pros: Part of an ongoing reclamation project to spruce up concrete parcels around Citi Field and Willets Point, a plan that separately includes a professional soccer stadium and housing. The project touts access to 20 acres of green space and Flushing Bay.
Cons: Cohen has not yet won approval from the state legislature to convert the designated parkland property eyed for the project for use as a casino entertainment complex because of opposition from local state Sen. Jessica Ramos. Plan also could cut into Genting Resort World at Aqueduct’s existing slots business just miles away.
BROOKLYN
Location: Coney Island
Name: The Coney
Developer: Thor Equities, Chickasaw Nation’s Global Gaming Solutions, Saratoga Casino Holdings and Legends Hospitality Group
Details: $3 billion “Coney” casino, hotel and convention hall erected just steps from the storied Brooklyn boardwalk and beach, smack between the site’s iconic Cyclone and Wonder Wheel
Pros: Would help rejuvenate Coney Island as a major tourist destination
Cons: Local Community Board 13 voted overwhelmingly against the project, with opponents saying they don’t want the iconic beach to be turned into Atlantic City.
BRONX
Location: Ferry Point
Name: Bally’s Casino
Developer: Bally’s
Details: Bally’s acquired the lease to run the golf course at Ferry Point from the Trump Organization and now hopes to convert portions of the site’s parking lot and practice range, which count as parkland, into a casino center.
Pros: Located at the foot of the Whitestone Bridge, the casino would have easy access from Queens, The Bronx, Long Island and Westchester County. Waterfront views of the East River and Long Island Sound
Cons: As with the Cohen project, Bally’s needs legislative approval to convert the parkland for commercial use.
NASSAU COUNTY, LI
Location: Uniondale
Name: Sands New York
Developer: Las Vegas Sands
Details: The Sands secured a lease from Nassau County to convert the Nassau Veterans Memorial Museum Coliseum into a casino complex with a live performance theater, a hotel and wellness spa, dining and convention space.
Pros: Big Nassau-Suffolk market not far Queens border, strong support from Republican-led government
Cons: Strong opposition spearheaded by nearby Hofstra University
YONKERS
Location: Yonkers Raceway
Name: Empire City
Developer: MGM Resorts International
Details: The Raceway introduced slot-machine-style gaming in 2006 with its Empire City Casino. Now it’s aiming for a full-on gaming license with a $3 billion expansion plan that would offer live table bets.
Pros: As with Resorts World at Aqueduct, it has a track record of success and local support.
Cons: Gaming expert Liebman describes MGM’s initial proposal as “underwhelming,” especially in comparison to the Hudson Yards, Cohen, Times Square and Sands proposals. “If other glitzier proposals actually reach the Gaming Facility Location Board, can they compete?” he said of Yonkers.
Both Liebman and John Sabini, former chairman of the state racing and wagering board, told The Post that the existing slots-parlor bidders — at Aqueduct and Yonkers — are the “favorites” to win two of the licenses.
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They’ve both been tax-generating cash cows for the state for more than a decade and enjoy strong local political support, the experts noted.
Revenues from the gaming companies who are awarded the new casino licenses will help fund the Metropolitan Transportation Authority.
“I would say the `racinos’ are the favorites. They have a track record of being a partner with the state for a long time,” Sabini said.
The existing parlors may not be shoo-ins, particularly when their proposals are judged against some of the competing dazzling plans, the experts said.
But community and political opposition to the other plans could matter more than the proposals’ merits, they said.
“There’s going to be opposition to every proposal,” said Sabini, who particularly was skeptical of any Manhattan pitch that survives the review process.
Genting Resorts World spent $2.87 million lobbying in Albany last year to try to convince foes of its plan’s merits.
Cohen and his partner also doled out more than $2.5 million combined pitching their plan.
Given hostility to a new casino in Manhattan, both gaming experts rated Las Vegas Sands’ bid a serious contender for the third license up for grabs.
“The Sands proposal is probably the strongest proposal right now. Long Island/Nassau-Suffolk is a pretty good market,” Sabini said.
The proposals must secure a two-thirds vote from elected officials on local six-member Community Advisory Committees before even being considered by a statewide gaming facility location board and then the state Gaming Commission.
Liebman said Big Apple Mayor Eric Adams’ recent political woes, triggered by multiple federal probes of his administration, is an “added wildcard” that could impact the selection process.
“If the generally pro-casino Adams is no longer the mayor and doesn’t appoint an advisory committee member, doesn’t this make the process even harder for most of the New York City-based casino projects?,” the prof said.
The winning bidders will have to pay the state a minimum $500 million up-front license fee.
