Yonkers Mayor Mike Spano is pushing for state officials to move faster in granting full casino licenses to MGM Empire City in Yonkers and Resorts World New York at Aqueduct.
With the original plan to have sign-off on the licenses by March 31, 2025, Spano is now calling on state officials to act now to stave off competition.
The mayor argues that action on the projects can start right away and they already have strong support within the local communities, providing jobs and potential for economic growth.
This comes after Related Companies and Wynn Resorts have cancelled plans to build a casino in Hudson Yards on Manhattan’s West Side, hot on the heels of Las Vegas Sands scrapping their proposal for a casino near the Nassau Coliseum. As those plans fall by the wayside, Spano argues that the focus should be on plans that can turn into open and functioning casinos quickly.
Specifically, MGM and Genting, who run the Yonkers and Queens casinos, can pay the state $2 billion in licensing fees right away, according to the mayor.
He argued that, between the two casinos, granting licenses would spark hundreds of millions in new tax money. With expected budget gaps caused by less federal money, Spano wants to speed up the process, rather than wait until the end of the year as currently planned.
What could casinos do for Yonkers?
Spano’s arguments center around bringing money and jobs to Yonkers, with estimates reported via Gambling News suggesting that Yonkers would get as much as $15 million more a year. The two new casinos would create more than 2,000 jobs, with the casinos’ staff increased by three times.
MGM bought the Yonkers site back in 2019 and has paid $5 billion to New York’s K-12 public schools since then. Likewise, Genting has promised a $5 billion investment to go towards its Queens location, with an expected $1 billion worth of taxes to be paid if it gets one of the licenses.
The current schedule would push the decision back to December, which Spano argues is too long to wait.
