Nassau County Almost Completely Out of New York Casino Licensing Race

Time to save the Nassau County, New York casino project is nearly out.

County Executive Bruce Blakeman said on Thursday that plans for a casino, which were dropped by Las Vegas Sands in April, are heavily leaning toward being scrapped entirely. There had been hope that a company would replace Sands and allow the project to continue.

Applications for three New York casino licenses are due to the New York Division of Gaming Enforcement on June 27.

Failure to field a replacement

Nassau County was mostly viewed as an underdog to other casino bidders, including New York Mets owner Steve Cohen’s Queens project, Jay-Z’s Times Square build, and others.

Hope had still remained that New York would be able to repackage the Nassau Coliseum, the planned location of the casino, near Long Island. Those beliefs seem to be nearly entirely gone.

I think it’s very, very unlikely,” Blakeman said in an interview with Newsday.

Nassau executives held conversations with companies with different levels of iGaming and retail casino experience. Gaming giant DraftKings reportedly showed interest and held several discussions with officials before withdrawing its name from consideration.

There is no deal between the companies nor will there be,” Newsday reported an anonymous source said. “DraftKings will not be taking over the Sands bid.”

Sands withdrew its name from the project in part because of the possibility that New York legalized online casinos in the future. The prevailing opinion was that a legal iGaming market would detract from land-based casinos’ bottom line, and casino gaming could even be more lucrative for online operators. 

Competition is still strong

Las Vegas Sands had said it hoped to help field a replacement for the project, though it has not found any success in doing so. 

The company also said the development project wouldn’t be economically sensible to participate in if it wasn’t guaranteed to have a casino, which wasn’t a guarantee due to the stiff competition for licenses.

Those sentiments may have changed. Sands paid $54 million to Nassau County, and Blakeman said that there is a “Plan B” in which Sands would be involved. Suggestions are that the pair could team up for a sports entertainment complex.

The gaming company previously revealed that per a final environmental impact study, costs to build a totally new gaming facility would’ve run $7.6 billion. 

There are eight groups left in contention to receive one of three New York casino operator’s licenses. Sands, along with Wynn Resorts and Saks Fifth Avenue, whittled down that total from what had long been 11.

Bally’s also finds itself in a perilous position as an official believes its application is being stalled due to connections to President Donald Trump, who would gain more than $100 million if the facility received a gaming license.