At its hearing on Dec. 1, the Gaming Facility Location Board unanimously recommended the three remaining applicants, Bally’s (Bronx), Hard Rock Metropolitan Park (Queens), and Resorts World New York City (Queens), for commercial casino licenses.
In its publicly released report, the Board praised Bally’s proposal as a “substantial investment” with a $2.3 billion capital plan, promising thousands of new jobs, a 507-room hotel, a 2,000-seat event center, a Jack-Nicklaus-designed golf course, a 4,661-space parking capacity, and extensive amenities.
It is easy, and perhaps politically expedient, to frame this as a win for New York: jobs, infrastructure, revenue, growth. But the publicly available record shows that Bally’s carries serious red flags, which the Board itself partially acknowledges but overlooks in its rush to issue all three licenses…