New York’s Oneida Indian Nation is looking for another hot hand from its third gaming resort in the state, the $40 million Point Place Casino.
With its debut last Thursday, Point Place brings the number of gaming facilities in New York to 20, and it enters an increasingly crowded market that got a lot more crowded just three weeks earlier with the opening of the state’s fourth privately owned casino, Resorts World Catskills, a property of Las Vegas dimensions with a deep-pocketed backer in the Genting Group and a location that positions it advantageously for taking market share from the competition.
But New York has been good to the Oneidas. Their flagship, Turning Stone Resort Casino, located off the New York State Thruway in Verona, has been a cash cow and the tribe’s principal economic engine for decades. And they’ve been strategic in expanding the brand’s reach ever deeper into the center of the state: first with the “Wizard of Oz”-themed Yellow Brick Road Casino, which opened in Chittenango in 2015 at a relatively modest investment of $20 million; and now with Point Place, a similarly boutique offering with 500 slot machines, 20 table games, a couple of casual, family-friendly eateries, two lounges and a confectionary and pastry shop.
“It’s got a whole different feel and vibe to it than our other casinos. It has that outdoor, Adirondack feel, and we’ve drawn from all the natural elements around us,” said Ray Halbritter, chief executive of Oneida Nation Enterprises, the tribe’s sprawling business arm whose holdings include branded retail, golf courses and other non-gaming leisure developments and companies engaged technology services and support and multimedia production.
Point Place places the tribe even closer to the region’s population hub of Syracuse, just 15 miles from downtown, and with a ready-made tourist backdrop on Oneida Lake in the town of Bridgeport.
“There’s plenty of market here,” Halbritter said. “We are very careful about our investments. It’s not just spontaneous. We wouldn’t build the property if we thought the market wasn’t there.”
