Pressure Mounts For Submitting New NY Casino Licenses

As the Empire State pushes to expand its retail casinos, most notably the Coney Island project and the $10 billion+ Wynn Resorts Casino project, New York’s legislature appears to be putting on the brakes for new casino projects. After heated debate, the lawmakers in Albany strong-armed a bill that has a concrete deadline for prospective casino developers looking for licenses to submit their applications. The bill is to be sent to Governor Kathy Hotchul to sign.

Currently, New York has three gaming licenses available in 2024 for bidding. In recent years, prominent New York businessmen and State legislatures have been pushing hard to expand retail casinos outside of the New York City metro area. The original deadline for submitting casino licenses was at some point in 2025. However, with the latest bill, that deadline has been pushed up to August 31. One reason for the sudden urgency in submitting new casino applications is to get perhaps a jump on prospective funding for New York’s infrastructure, most notably to help the Metropolitan Transportation Authority fix its congestion issues.

State Senator Addabbo took the lead in crafting the new casino bill. However, he was careful to consult with Resorts World so that all parties would be on the same page. Besides authoring the new bill, State Senator Joseph Addabbo has been passionate about legalizing online casinos in the Empire State. To begin 2024, Addabbo submitted a revised bill stating that up to 20 online casino apps would be able to operate in the Empire State.

The urgency for online casinos in New York is to compete against nearby states like Pennsylvania and New Jersey. Even though Michigan has taken over the number one spot for online poker revenue, Pennsylvania still generates the most overall gambling revenue outside of Nevada. New Jersey leads all online casino states with over 30 online sites.

However, Howard Glazer of the Light and Wonder company stressed the importance of building up New York’s land based casinos. Part of the rationale for loading up retail casinos is to help prevent future cannibalization that online casinos would bring from traditional casinos. Furthermore, state gaming agencies require legal online casinos to partner with brick-and-mortar casinos as a license requirement. So, by having casinos, especially outside New York City, residents and tourists can take advantage of the cash cage to fund their accounts and pick up their winnings should online casinos become legal in The Empire State.