Eight Casino Submissions Await Sept. 30 Preliminary Approval

Among the approximately eleven operators initially interested in one of the three downstate casino licenses being issued, only eight submitted their final applications to the Gaming Facility Location Board (GFLB) by the June 30, 2025 deadline. The expansion of gambling in the state comes following approvals by voters in 2013 allowing for the creation of up to seven commercial licenses for casinos, of which three were allocated to downstate in 2022 as part of budget negotiations that year. Locations being proposed by the eight applicants include Hell’s Kitchen, Times Square, and the Midtown East waterfront in Manhattan; Ferry Point in the Bronx; Willets Point and Jamaica in Queens, Coney Island, Brooklyn with the remaining submission outside of New York City in Yonkers. Prior to decisions being made by the GFLB, the applications submitted by each operator will undergo a mini-vote sometime between now and September 30, 2025, by a six-person Community Advisory Committee (CAC). (In Yonkers, the CAC will have five members). “For each of the seven New York City-based applicants, a CAC has been created with one member appointed by each of the following officials: Gov. Kathy Hochul, Mayor Eric Adams, and the proposed casino location’s applicable state Senator, state Assemblymember, borough president and City Councilmember.” To move a license forward for any of the application submissions, four or more of the specially appointed CAC members must approve the submission. According to an article by Crain’s New York, “some appointments don’t bode well for the relevant projects – particularly since some have openly expressed opposition to casinos. Prior to the September 30 vote, the CAC groups must hold two public hearings under state rules, the dates of which have yet to be announced, and the casino bidders will be allowed to change their proposals in response to feedback from the committees.

Final decisions for the three licenses will be made on December 1, 2025, by the GFLB members — “former NYC housing commissioner Vicki Been (chair), general counsel at Pace University Terryl Brown, senior vice president at U.S. News and World Report Marion Phillips, III and retired real estate finance executive Greg Reimers.” Each of the three selected operators will be required to pay the $500 million state license fee by December 31st. As part of the deal, the operators — a mix of developers, backers and owners will also be required to spend a “minimum of $500 million in ‘capital investments’ in the area where they will be located, which could mean anything from building subsidized housing to contributing to local transit improvements or creating public park space.” Revenue from future gaming will be taxed by a yet-to-be-determined rate that will be at least 25% for slot gaming and 10% for all other gaming revenue. Although the results of an analysis by Spectrum Gaming in 2021 estimated that the impact of expanding gambling facilities in upstate New York — of which four opened since the 2013 vote, “would produce $5.5 billion in gross gambling revenue, $841 million a year in tax revenue and create 30,000 jobs, a more recent analysis in 2023 by the New York State Comptroller’s Office “found that though those casinos brought in $176 million for local governments, they did fail to meet their initial revenue and tax projections between 2017 and 2022.”

Source:    https://www.thecity.nyc/2025/07/11/casino-proposal-guide-vote-gambling/

Source:    https://www.6sqft.com/casino-proposals-competing-for-a-downstate-new-york-gaming-license/