Resorts World New York City opens live table games Tuesday, the earliest of the state’s three newly licensed downstate casinos to offer them.
Resorts World New York City opens live table games next Tuesday (28 April), the Queens facility’s first departure from its slot-only operations in 14 years and the earliest of the state’s three newly licensed downstate casinos to offer them.
200 tables, including blackjack, baccarat, roulette and craps, will occupy a renovated third floor beside Aqueduct Racetrack, where the property has run exclusively on electronic machines since 2011.
State regulators awarded Resorts World, owned by Genting Group, one of three downstate casino licences last December. The remaining two went to a Steve Cohen–Hard Rock International partnership and Bally’s Corporation.
Neither will be able to operate live games without completing their construction, which will take a few more years.
The grand opening on Tuesday will have a dice rolling ceremony involving rapper Nas, who is from Queens, and KT Lim, chairman of Genting.
There has been significant hiring even before the opening. The casino said it had hired 1,250 people, 950 of whom received training as table-game dealers. There are currently 2,200 employees, while the target is 2,700 by summer.
Plenty of room to grow
The eventual buildout is considerably larger than what opens Tuesday.
Company plans call for 6,000 slot machines, 800 live tables and 10,800 total gaming positions, along with 2,000 hotel rooms, a 7,000-seat entertainment venue, 12-plus acres of public green space and a spa.
There will also be an innovation campus with a sports facility named for two-time NBA champion Kenny “The Jet” Smith.
The hotel component builds on the existing Hyatt Regency JFK Airport already on the property.
Resorts World, which has previously been caught up in allegations of money laundering, has delivered roughly $5bn in education tax revenue to New York State since 2011.
The addition of live table games is projected to increase that total and deepen the property’s role in what state officials have framed as a shift toward a large-scale integrated resort development in the city.