Resorts World In Queens To Offer Table Games Next Week

The cards will be dealt, the dice will be rolled, the wheel will be spun next Tuesday at Resorts World in Queens, as table games will be offered in New York City for the first time in (legal) history.

According to a New York Post exclusive, the city’s first table games will debut and the first dice will be thrown by famed rapper Nas, born and raised in the borough.

Resorts World — which has been operating as a slots parlor for over a decade — was obviously well-positioned to be the first of the three new casinos to get up and running. The two other winning bidders — Steve Cohen and Hard Rock’s Metropolitan Park, which will build near Citi Field in Queens, and Bally’s, which will be at President Donald Trump’s former golf course at Ferry Point in the Bronx — still have to build their casinos. Resorts World, which is adding buildings, a hotel, and a concert hall, has renovated its third floor in order to introduce tables immediately. 

“New York City has never seen anything like what we’re planning for April 28,” said Robert DeSalvio, president of Genting Americas East. “Once final testing is complete, live table games will be open and operating right here in Queens for the first time in the history of New York City. We are ready to welcome New Yorkers to this exciting new experience.”

More than 200 table games will be offered, with 1,250 new jobs added at the site.

“We are proud to be creating more than a thousand new jobs while taking a major step forward for this property. This is a transformational moment for Resorts World New York City, and we cannot wait to share it with our fellow New Yorkers,” De Salvio said.

Once the entire project is finished, Resorts World will boast 6,000 slot machines and 800 table games to go along with a 2,000-room hotel and a 7,000-seat concert venue.

Long process

The April 28 opening caps a licensing process that dragged on for years until December, when the New York State Gaming Commission handed out its three downstate casino licenses to Resorts World, Hard Rock’s Metropolitan Park, and Bally’s. Each license runs $500 million, with another $500 million minimum in capital investment required on top.

Getting here wasn’t pretty. Four applicants — including all the Manhattan bids — got bounced due to local opposition at the Community Advisory Committee stage. MGM Yonkers, an incumbent many figured was a lock, stunned everyone in October by pulling its application after advancing, saying the economics didn’t work given the license term length.

So that leaves Resorts World in the lead, Hard Rock and Bally’s targeting 2030, and New York City finally getting legal table games. If you can make it there …