New York advances casinos at a Bronx golf course and near Mets stadium

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NEW YORK (AP) — Casinos proposed for a golf course in the Bronx and next to the New York Mets’ ballpark are poised to cash in on a lucrative state gambling license for the New York City area.

The two proposals were recommended for licensing by a key state gaming board on Monday.

The New York Gaming Facility Location Board also called for awarding a license to Resorts World to expand its slots parlor located in Queens near the John F. Kennedy Airport into a full-scale casino with table games and other amenities.

Bally’s $4 billion casino plan for the city-owned Ferry’s Point golf course also notably means President Donald Trump will also see a significant casino windfall.

The Rhode Island-based company purchased the rights to operate the public 18-hole course from the Trump Organization in 2023, with the promise to pony up another $115 million if it won a casino license.

The recommendations now head to the state Gaming Commission, which is expected to formally issue the licenses before the end of the year, as the gambling revenues from the facilities are already factored into the state budget.

The commission is authorized to license up to three casinos in the New York City area after voters approved a referendum back in 2013 opening the door to casino gambling across the state.

Since then, four full casinos with table games have opened in New York, but all of them are located upstate, miles away from Manhattan. The state also has nine gambling halls offering slot machines and other electronic gambling machines, but no live table games.

The gaming board on Monday listed many community benefits promised by the proposals, from public safety investments to public transit and roadway improvements. They also noted the individual aspects of the plans that made them compelling, from the Jack Nicklaus-designed golf course included in Bally’s Bronx proposal to the Hard Rock casino’s potential to “unify an already vibrant” area of Queens anchored by Citifield.

A group of anti-casino protesters chanted “Shame on you! Shame on you!” as they were escorted out of the meeting at the CUNY Graduate Center in midtown.

The closely watched competition for a New York City license began with a crowded field, with some eight proposals in the running as recently as September.

But four of the high-profile plans failed to get the stamp of approval from local advisory boards, automatically knocking them out of contention.

Among the most notable was a Jay-Z-backed plan to build a Caesars Palace in Times Square, as well as two other resorts proposed in central Manhattan.

Then in October, MGM abruptly pulled out of the license sweepstakes, saying the “competitive and economic assumptions underpinning” their plans had changed. The Las Vegas casino giant had planned a major expansion of the Empire City Casino, a slots parlor located at the Yonkers Raceway north of Manhattan.

In the Bronx, Bally’s has proposed a $4 billion development on a parking lot and some practice greens at the city-owned Ferry’s Point golf course, which was previously run by Trump’s company.

In Queens, billionaire New York Mets owner Steve Cohen has proposed building a $8.1 billion Hard Rock casino on a parking lot of the professional baseball team’s CitiField. The complex would include a more than 5,000-seat performance venue, a 1,000-room hotel and retail and shopping space.

The Malaysia-based Resorts World, meanwhile, has proposed investing more than $5 billion into the slot parlor it operates at the Aqueduct Race Track near the John F. Kennedy International Airport, also in Queens.

The company wants to turn the so-called racino into a full-fledged casino, with traditional table games such as blackjack and poker, as well as hotel, dining and entertainment options.