17 candidates for four casino licenses in the State of New York
On Monday, June 30, the regulatory authority of the state of New York has received no fewer than 17 applications for a license to operate a land-based casino.
Before the end of November they will have to select four candidates.
Lee Park, the spokesperson of the authority, has also stated that a more detailed presentation will be available in about one week, which should be enough time to take a closer in depth look at the different files.
Whatever happens, one thing is obvious: the final list of candidates has declined from an estimated 22 in last April.
Reason for this is probably the increased competition from major international operators who discouraged smaller casino operators.
Breakdown of applicants
In November, the governor of the state of New York will issue four licenses for casinos in three regions in the north: Capital Region, Southern Tier and Hudson Valley.
The last area has attracted the most interest from applicants, with no less than 8 applications from small casino operator Alabama Greenetrack to large international groups, such as Caesars Entertainment, Penn National and the Genting Group. For the capital region 5 projects were submitted, including a Hard Rock Casino along the Hudson River costing 300 million dollars.
The remaining three applications were submitted for the Southern Tier Region.
Reputable casinos in Las Vegas
Some of the projects received by the regulatory authority of the state of New York propose the creation of huge entertainment complexes worth over 1 billion dollars, incorporating luxury hotels, entertainment venues, conference rooms, a commercial gallery, and of course casinos as well.
The creation of these institutions would be a real bargain for the state, as they would create thousands of jobs and a lot of tax revenue.
Nevertheless, it remains to be seen whether the casino operators will stick to their plans that include increasing market saturation in the regions close to Connecticut, Maryland, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island and soon Massachusetts.
In their applications, applicants had to include a presentation of 52 pages, and hundreds of pages of documents, and on top of that 20 copies of each submission.
Local economic development plans and comprehensive financial plans are only a few of the documents that will be carefully analysed and taken into account in the coming months.
