MGM Resorts, considered the frontrunner to gain a downstate casino license, withdrew its application to the New York Gaming Commission and the Gaming Facility Location Boards.<\/p>\n
News 12\u2019s senior reporter Tara Rosenblum first reported the expected withdrawal.<\/p>\n
In a statement, MGM said the \u201ccompetitive and economic assumption\u201d surrounding their bid shifted, \u201caltering our return expectations on the proposed $2.3 billion investment.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe newly defined competitive landscape \u2013 with four proposals clustered in a small geographic area \u2013 challenges the returns we initially anticipated from this project. Also, our proposal to renovate and expand Empire City Casino was predicated on the receipt of a 30-year commercial casino license but based on newly issued guidance from the State of New York we now expect to qualify for only a 15-year license.”<\/p>\n
MGM said that taken together, the proposition \u201cno longer aligns\u201d with its \u201ccommitment to capital stewardship\u201d or its real estate partner, VICI.<\/p>\n
In a statement, Yonkers Mayor Mike Spano said the decision by MGM “defies all logic.”<\/p>\n
“It\u2019s nothing short of a betrayal to the people of Yonkers and Westchester County. I am calling on Governor Hochul to launch an independent investigation into this process, because the reasons MGM gives for its 180-degree reversal just don’t add up.”<\/p>\n
Spano also alleged that MGM\u2019s decision would directly benefit Bally\u2019s proposal for a casino at the former Trump Links at Ferry Point:<\/p>\n
\u201cIt’s also no secret that Bally’s has a deal with Donald Trump that they will pay him an additional $115 million if they can open a casino there. People need to be assured that there is no linkage between MGM’s decision and the massive financial benefit to Donald Trump.\u201d <\/p>\n
Westchester County Executive Ken Jenkins shared in Mayor Spano\u2019s dismay.<\/p>\n
\u201cFrankly, this decision makes little sense \u2014 especially after MGM had just been celebrating its advancement through the first round of the process,\u201d he sad in a statement. \u201cI share Yonkers Mayor Mike Spano\u2019s concern that there appears to be more to this story \u2014 potentially political influence or pressure from the Trump Administration, or even the President himself, that forced MGM\u2019s hand to default to Bally\u2019s \u2014 a move that could result in a profit of roughly $115 million for Trump.\u201d <\/p>\n
News 12 reached out to Bally’s for comment is awaiting a response.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MGM Resorts, considered the frontrunner to gain a downstate casino license, withdrew its application to the New York…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":304227,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5122],"tags":[5229,22619,154388,405,403,5226,5225,5228,5227,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-304226","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-casino","10":"tag-empire-city-casino","11":"tag-new-york","12":"tag-new-york-city","13":"tag-newyork","14":"tag-newyorkcity","15":"tag-ny","16":"tag-nyc","17":"tag-united-states","18":"tag-united-states-of-america","19":"tag-unitedstates","20":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","21":"tag-us","22":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115375858297812008","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/304226","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=304226"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/304226\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/304227"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=304226"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=304226"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=304226"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}