Resorts World NYC Already The State’s Top Revenue Casino — By Far
Third week was best yet for property in Queens that added table games in late April
1 min
The New York State Gaming Commission has now issued three weeks’ worth of revenue data since Resorts World NYC in Queens opened its table games floor on April 28, and they demonstrate the expanded property is having a profound impact on the overall commercial casino revenue totals in the state.
For the week ending April 26 — the final full week before Resorts World NYC expanded from a racino to the full-fledged casino in New York City — the four upstate commercial casinos (Del Lago Resort and Casino, Resorts World Catskills, Rivers Casino and Resort, and Tioga Downs) combined for $13.4 million in gross gaming revenue (GGR).
That number more than tripled in each of the three subsequent weeks with the addition of the Queens casino. For the week ending May 3, statewide GGR was $41.3 million. The next week, it was $40.1 million. And for the week ending May 17, the total was $41.8 million.
Resorts World NYC isn’t just New York state’s biggest commercial casino in terms of revenue. It’s generating more than twice as much revenue as the other four properties combined.
This probably shouldn’t be a great surprise, as the population density near Queens is a wee bit greater than that of the New York towns of Nichols, Schenectady, Monticello, or Waterloo.
Gathering steam
On a week-to-week basis, the table games handle and revenue are growing at Resorts World NYC. The increases aren’t enormous, and it must be noted that in the first week these games were only open for six days, but the numbers have been ticking upward. That suggests there wasn’t a wave of opening-week interest that quickly ebbed.
The third week, ending May 17, was particularly strong, with drop (betting handle) reaching a new high of $43 million and GGR improving by about 50% over the opening week to $7.4 million.
Here’s a breakdown of the slot and table game numbers at Resorts World NYC in each of its first three weeks as a full casino:
| Slot drop | Slot GGR | Table games drop | Table games GGR | Total GGR | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Week ending 5/3 | $298.1M | $22.3M | $34.5M | $4.9M | $27.2M |
| Week ending 5/10 | $323.5M | $21.8M | $37.5M | $5M | $26.7M |
| Week ending 5/17 | $317M | $21.1M | $43M | $7.4M | $28.5M |
The gap between the action in Queens and at the established upstate casinos is striking. While Resorts World NYC collected table games GGR of $7.4 million from May 11-17, Resorts World Catskills scored $1.2 million, Rivers in Schenectady generated about $1 million, Del Lago reported $695,000, and Tioga Downs produced GGR of just $352,000.
New York’s 16 tribal casinos are not required to disclose monthly financial data to state regulators.
Resorts World NYC will eventually have competition in the downstate region from Hard Rock Metropolitan Park in Queens and a Bally’s casino in the Bronx, but neither is projected to open until 2030.
