A bill meant to speed up the process of applying for and issuing licenses for the three downstate casinos authorized for New York has been watered down with an amendment that will increase its chances of passing the legislature.
The sponsors of S9673 intended to speed up the ultra-slow bid and licensing process after the New York Gaming Commission announced that bids probably wouldn’t be submitted until January 2025, with licenses to be awarded toward the end of the year.
According to a report in PlayUSA, Senator Joe Addabbo amended the bill by adding hard deadlines with a couple of loopholes.
The bill requires the New York Gaming Facility Location Board to make recommendations on selecting downstate casinos by December 31, 2025, the same time estimated by the Gaming Commission.
The commission would then have 30 days to award up to three licenses, fixing the licensing deadline at January 30. However, an option for two 30-day extensions brings the final possible day for issuance of licenses to March 31, 2026.
Addabbo told PlayUSA that he worked with Assemblyman Gary Pretlow to come up with a compromise that the Assembly might pass. The New York Legislature adjourned June 6, but was expected to work overnight into Friday, June 7. Addabbo doesn’t expect the Senate to pass S9673 until those early morning hours Friday.
“As of now, it’s in play. I’m pleased that we can finally codify a start and end date,” he told PlayUSA. “The process right now has no deadline. To put a deadline on it makes it concrete and definitive, and I think adds to the integrity and fairness of it all.”
Meanwhile, the new deadlines may not help Bally’s Corp. in its bid to get a license for Bally’s Links at Ferry Point in the Bronx. Bally’s faces the same obstacle as Mets owner Steve Cohen faces in Queens—the site of the former Trump Links golf course is classified as parkland, and must be approved for a zoning change for a casino by the state legislature to qualify for one of the three casino licenses. Bally’s has thus far been unable to find Bronx lawmakers to introduce a parkland alienation bill for the project.
Bronx Assemblyman Michael Benedetto has said he was “not advocating for any alienation bill,” according to The Real Deal. According to the publication, the office of state Senator Nathalia Fernandez, who represents the Bronx, declined to comment on the issue, and has not supported a parkland alienation measure for the Bally’s project.
Cohen’s casino project, the proposed Metropolitan Park on current parking lot acres at Citi Field, faces an identical roadblock. After state Senator Jessica Ramos of Queens refused to submit a bill to change the zoning at the Citi Field site, she introduced a bill that would allow any of several new uses for the parcel of land, but with no casino. Cohen has not yet found a sponsor to submit the bill.
The Bally’s project would assign 17 acres of the site to create a new Bally’s casino, with the remainder designated as green space or possible housing.
The $2.5 billion casino resort would join the 17-acre, award-winning Jack Nicklaus-designed golf course on the waterfront parcel where the East River meets Long Island Sound.
