Of the ten proposals hoping to secure three coveted casino licenses for downstate New York, five of the teams have withdrawn their bids or had them voted down by so-called Community Advisory Committees. Of the five remaining bids, none are in Manhattan.
As a quick recap, the New York State constitution was amended in 2013 to allow up to seven Las Vegas-style casinos to operate in the state. So they could get a head start and not compete directly with casinos in or near New York City, four upstate casino licenses were approved first. The process of securing the three remaining licenses has been ongoing for the last few years, though experts anticipate that two of the licenses will go to existing “racinos”—facilities that have race tracks and slot machines but no card games, table games, and other Vegas-style gambling—in the area, leaving just one license for the other bidders.
Ten developers/casino operators submitted bids, some of them including architectural renderings, and most of them featuring lists of other programmatic elements outside of gambling facilities, such as hotels, affordable housing, and even museums. The latter can be seen as a means of enticing area residents who have been able to give feedback to their respective Community Advisory Committee, with each CAC determining if the bid would move forward and be reviewed by the Gaming Facility
Location Board. That process has been ramping up this month, with decisions made on three of the bids, all in Manhattan. A list of the five Manhattan bids no longer in the running:
- Saks Fifth Avenue (Hudson’s Bay Company) – Withdrew bid in April.
- Hudson Yards (Related Companies with Wynn Resorts) – Withdrew bid in May.
- The Avenir (Larry Silverstein with Watche Manoukian) – Voted down by CAC on September 17, 2025.
- Caesars Palace Times Square (SL Green Realty with Caesars Entertainment) – Voted down by CAC on September 17, 2025.
- Freedom Plaza (Soloviev Group with Mohegan) – Voted down by CAC on September 22, 2025.
This leaves five outer-borough/inner-suburban sites in the running for the three casino licenses, two of them existing “racinos” and three of them new developments:
- Resorts World New York City at Aqueduct Racetrack in Queens – Expected to receive one of the three licenses.
- MGM Empire City in Yonkers – Expected to receive one of the three licenses.
- Bally's Bronx (Bally's Corporation) at Ferry Point, the Bronx.
- The Coney (Thor Equities Group with Saratoga Casino Holdings and the Chickasaw Nation) in Coney Island, Brooklyn.
- Metropolitan Park (Steve Cohen with Hard Rock International) next to Citi Field in Queens.
With two licenses expected to go to the existing “racinos,” and with the Manhattan bids out of the picture, many pundits are seeing Metropolitan Park, the proposed $8 billion complex next to the New York Mets baseball stadium in Queens, as a favorite for the third license. With the CAC process moving forward on these five remaining sites, we should know the outcome of the years-long downstate casino process very soon.