Licensing
New York's downstate casinos: three licenses, awarded December 2025
The short answer
After a two-year siting process, New York's Gaming Facility Location Board selected three bidders on December 1, 2025 — Bally's in the Bronx, Hard Rock Metropolitan Park next to Citi Field in Queens, and Resorts World at Aqueduct — and the Gaming Commission executed license awards in mid-December. The projects carry license terms of 15 to 20 years, hundreds of millions in license fees, and multi-billion-dollar construction commitments.
In this article
The largest casino-award decision in US gaming in years closed on a schedule few expected a year earlier: on December 1, 2025, New York's Gaming Facility Location Board selected all three available downstate licensees at once, and the Gaming Commission executed the awards two weeks later. New York City — the biggest untapped casino market in the country — went from proposal stage to three licensed projects in a single month.
What was awarded
Illustrative example
| Project | Site | License term | Context |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bally's Bronx | Ferry Point, the Bronx | Per commission award | New-build casino on the former Trump golf course site |
| Hard Rock Metropolitan Park | Willets Point, Queens, beside Citi Field | 20-year initial term | Steve Cohen–backed resort complex; executed award letter dated December 2025 |
| Resorts World New York City | Aqueduct, Queens | 15-year term | Existing slots-only racino converting to full casino |
The board's announcement records the shape of the competition: eight applications were received by the June 27, 2025 deadline, and the process narrowed through community advisory committee votes — the stage where prominent bids like the proposed Times Square and Hudson Yards casinos failed — before the board selected three on December 1. MGM's Empire City in Yonkers, long considered a frontrunner, withdrew from the process in October 2025.
What the licenses are — and are not
- They are conditional approvals to build and operate, not operating certificates: each licensee must still complete construction and satisfy the commission before opening.
- The 2013 statewide casino law reserved up to three downstate licenses; all three were awarded in this single round — no licenses remain in the downstate pool.
- Each project carries a license fee and capital-commitment obligations negotiated through the siting process; the executed award letters are the primary record of those terms.
- Resorts World's conversion path differs from the two new builds — it operates an existing racino that can expand faster than a ground-up resort.
The awards add three full casinos to a market that already includes racinos and tribal properties — relevant context in commercial vs. tribal gaming revenue — and they land in an ownership landscape recently reshaped by deals like the IGT/Everi split.
