The New York legislature has given its OK to the company behind the struggling Resorts World Catskills to add machine games in neighboring Orange County.
The authorization came last week in language included in an omnibus bill passed after the official close of the 2019 legislative session. It’s intended to ensure that publicly traded Empire Resorts maintains some continuity in its investment in the Catskills following the company’s decision in April to close its failing racino at Monticello Raceway just six miles from Resorts World.
Despite its $1 billion price tag and relative proximity in Sullivan County to New York City, Resorts World has registered on average the lowest daily slot win of all the state’s full-scale casinos and earlier this year was granted regulatory approval to cut its machine numbers from an initial complement of 2,150 to 1,600.
The lackluster performance aside, its February 2018 debut sealed the fate of the racino at Monticello, which had been in operation for 15 years. In the months after Resorts World opened, the daily win at Monticello’s 1,100 video lottery terminals plunged 50 percent to a mere $75 per unit, a record low for the New York market.
“There is not enough business to justify the cost of operating it,” Empire CEO Ryan Eller said at the time.
The Orange County agreement calls for Empire to reopen the Monticello VLTs at a former chemical plant between the towns of Harriman and Woodbury. As such, it will be the first machine gaming operation in New York to operate outside a casino or racetrack. Lawmakers, however, said they do not intend it as a precedent for other struggling gaming halls in the state.
“I’m not particularly pro- or anti-gambling so I used this opportunity to deliver real, substantive economic benefits to the constituents I represent,” said state Senator Dan Skoufis, whose district includes Woodbury.
The agreement also looks to shore up the flagging 60-year-old harness track at Monticello Raceway by cutting it in for a share of the gaming revenue from the new location. Yonkers Raceway, located about 47 miles to the southeast in Westchester County, will get a piece as well to allay political concerns over the proximity to Yonkers’ Empire City Casino. It also requires Resorts World to pay to clean up the site, which the chemical plant left contaminated, and provides for $1.2 million in aid from the VLTs to offset the impact of municipal services for the project, which will employ around 400 local residents once it’s up and running.
Empire lauded the deal, saying, “Once final local approvals are granted, we will have a sustainable gaming footprint that will create new jobs in Orange County, while simultaneously preserving existing jobs and resort destination investment in Sullivan County.”
