The gaming floor at Monticello Casino & Raceway became the first ever to close in New York when owner Empire Resorts followed through last week on plans to shutter the struggling operation, a fate that was all but predestined after Empire’s giant Resorts World Catskills debuted just six miles away.
“There is not enough business that remains at that VLT facility to justify the cost of operating it,” said Ryan Eller, president and CEO of publicly traded Empire (Nasdaq: NYNY).
The casino’s 1,100 video lottery terminals, which had been taking bets since 2004, were unplugged on April 23, and all players’ points and perks were transferred to Resorts World. The casino’s 160 or so employees were offered either a job at Resorts World or a severance package.
Empire has promised to keep open the 60-year-old harness track, which employs around 40, but observers believe its future is problematic as well as both attendance and handle have plummeted over the years.
“The guardians of racing are the horsemen. Track operators are the guardians of their pocketbooks and nothing else,” said Joe Faraldo, president of the state’s Standardbred Owners Association.
It was not expected that Resorts World’s opening last February would necessarily doom the racino, at least not according to Empire, which hoped the two would serve distinct markets. But when Resorts World struggled out of the gate𑁋a problem that has afflicted all four of New York’s commercial casinos since they first appeared at the end of 2016𑁋the choice was clear.
Despite its $1 billion price tag and relative proximity to New York City, Resorts World’s daily slot win has been the lowest in the state at about $119 per machine, and plans are under way to cut its machine numbers from their initial complement of 2,150 to 1,600.
And in the months after it opened, Monticello’s daily win plunged 50 percent to a mere $75 per machine, the lowest of any New York racino in the market’s 15-year history.
As for its VLTs, which are owned by the New York Lottery, various plans are being floated to reopen them elsewhere.
A bill in the Legislature would give them to Catskill Off-Track Betting Corp. to place in three new outlets in its coverage area, which stretches across the Hudson Valley and into the Southern Tier.
Empire Resorts, meanwhile, is shopping a proposal of its own to ship them to neighboring Orange County, ideally to a venue near the popular Woodbury Common outlet mall in Harriman.
The state gets a portion of the revenue from the VLTs to fund education, and the horsemen also get a piece for racing, as do local governments for hosting the facility. Those payments will now be covered by Resorts World Catskills. The state budget doesn’t anticipate any reduction in revenue to the state.
Empire says its Orange County plan would generate $100 million or more of investment from Resorts World and create around 400 jobs.
“We’re eager to explore various options to preserve the Monticello Raceway operations, and relocating the raceway video-gaming machines to Orange County would definitely go a long way to that goal,” Eller said.
“It creates jobs, increases revenue for the state of New York and education, and we look forward to continuing the dialogue with the state, Orange County, Sullivan County and all stakeholders.”
