The decision on which three operators will be awarded downstate casino licenses in New York may spill over into next year.
That is the view of Jospeh Addabbo, a State Senator from Queens, who voted in favour of the 2013 casino bill.
It has been a long-drawn out process stretching over a decade to get to the stage where there are eight bidders competing for three new land-based casino licenses, as opposed to online casinos that aren’t state regulated.
The New York State Gaming Facility Board is expected to make a formal announcement regarding successful bidders on December 1, once due processes have been followed and a decision made on which three projects will proceed.
Updating New York’s Gambling Laws
In an exclusive interview with SportsBoom.com, Addabbo spoke about the need for New York to catch up with its neighbours, as along with the delays in establishing its downtown casino licenses, legal sports betting on individual player awards is still not available in the state.
New York’s present laws don’t allow sports betting apps to offer markets on awards that are voted for by humans as opposed to being based on data such as points scored in a season.
That means the likes of the SuperBowl MVP and Heisman Trophy winner have not yet received legislative approval, leading to New Yorkers looking out of state or at offshore sportsbooks to place their wagers.
Addabbo is the chair of the New York Senate Committee on Racing, Gaming and Wagering and is keen for these issues and the award of the casino licenses to be resolved when the state legislature reconvenes, but that is not now expected to be until January 2026.
“New Yorkers are already making these types of prop bets in neighbouring states such as New Jersey and Connecticut,” Addabbo said.
“Also, the governor needs to know that New York is viewed nationally as an expanding US market.
“We are currently losing $1 billion per year, and we need the revenue.
“Even though we are doing $2.6 million in revenue, we’re never done.
“New Jersey does prop bets, we don’t.
“But New Yorkers are savvy, and they will back to going out of state for these types of wagers.
“We can never rest. We have to keep up with other states.”
What Needs To Happen Next?
The casino process is being overseen by the New York Gaming Facility Board and bidders have recently been making presentations to the Community Advisory Committee (CAC) who will pass their recommendations on to the board by September 30.
Award winning rapper Jay-Z joined Caesars and SL Green to present their $5.4 billion Times Square Casino bid in July and in the past few days the team has promised $15 million to help build the Museum of Civil Rights In Manhattan if its proposal is successful.
Bidders also have to attend two mandated public hearings before that September deadline.
The consortium behind an application for The Coney attended the first of theirs on Tuesday at the Coney Island YMCA.
The scale of interest could be measured by the fact it took nearly four hours to get through the meeting with scores of speakers wanting to get their views across.
The Coney bid, backed by Thor Equities, the Chickasaw Nation and Saratoga Casino Holdings is the only project targeting Brooklyn.
The original timeline was that a decision would be announced on December 1, with licenses being awarded by December 31 after successful bidders had paid their $500 million fee to the state.
The Ceasars bid is one of three based in Manhattan, together with The Avenir on the far West Side in Midtown and Freedom Plaza on the East Side.
The Coney is among the other five proposals, along with Metropolitan Park, a 50-acres site of parking lots near Citi Field in Queens, Resorts World also in Queens, Bally’s Bronx at the former Trump Golf Links and an expansion of MGM Empire City in Yonkers.
Jim Munro is a betting industry and gambling expert who has been a national newspaper journalist for over 30 years, predominantly at The Sunday Times and The Sun, where he wrote a weekly soccer betting column. Jim also worked on the launch of Virgin Bet with Gamesys and was subsequently head of editorial at LiveScore, the sports media and betting group.
