In a few years, visitors to Times Square in New York City may find that there are other jackpots available besides the limitless soup, salad, and breadsticks at the Olive Garden.
According to a report from the New York Times earlier this month, the developer SL Green Corporation and Caesars Entertainment, the company behind Caesars Palace and Harrah's, intend to build a casino within a tower at 1515 Broadway in Times Square close to West 44th Street.
The building is already owned by SL Green, and the "The Lion King" Broadway theater would be included into the development according to the Caesars Palace Times Square concept.
If the Manhattan casino resort wins one of the three gaming licenses to be issued for the New York City region, it is also anticipated to include a hotel, a wellness center, and restaurants.
There are other initiatives to introduce state-licensed poker tables and slot machines to Manhattan in addition to the one under consideration.
On the western border of Manhattan, at the Hudson Yards project that Related Cos. has constructed, Wynn Resorts and its partner, Related Cos., seek to build a casino.
The facility is touted as the biggest privately developed real estate project in American history, and theoretically a casino would give it fresh life.
The pandemic's arrival, a slowing in office demand, and the closure of the much-anticipated Neiman Marcus department store caused Hudson Yards to lose some of its shine after its grand opening in 2019.
Coney Island in Brooklyn is also up for bid, as is Queens, where the owner of the New York Mets is negotiating with Hard Rock to build a casino complex near to Citi Field.
Two of the three casino licenses available in the New York City region are expected to be won by already existing "racino" complexes, which are horse racetrack with video slots and other forms of gambling but no actual dealers.
Due to their current gaming footprint, those sites, Empire City Casino in Yonkers and Resorts World New York City in Queens, would be quicker to develop and launch than the Wynn or Caesars bids (though, both Empire City and Resorts World are slated to get significant investment to boost the gaming experience should they win out).
There are no shortcuts.
Compared to Caesars' idea, which involves a skyscraper that already exists, the Wynn/Related deal is significantly more complicated.
It would be necessary to construct a 10-acre deck over live railway tracks for the proposed Wynn casino, which would be located close to the Javits Convention Center.
Additionally, there would be a protracted planning and approval process.
Naturally, Caesars doesn't always have things figured out.
Broadway is not spreading out the welcome mat for a casino to go up nearby the Great White Way just because the project would cover the location of the musical "The Lion King."
Members of the Broadway League, which speaks for the community of theater owners and producers, were advised that the Broadway League would not be supporting the proposed casino in the area.
The inclusion of a casino would put the entire neighborhood, whose survival depends on Broadway, in danger. "The addition of a casino will overrun the already heavily populated region," the league told the NYT in a statement.
"Broadway is the main engine of tourism, and putting its stability at jeopardy would be bad for the city."
However, the labor organization Actors' Equity Association, which represents Broadway actors and stage managers, is in favor of the proposal and stated in its own statement that a Times Square casino "would be a game changer that boosts security and safety in the Times Square neighborhood with increased security staff, more sanitation equipment, and new cameras."
From a financial standpoint, though, having Broadway theaters just outside a casino might not be as terrific as it sounds.
Casino consulting and publishing company CEO Alan Woinski stated earlier this year that big metropolitan casinos normally don't do well.
Spending on entertainment is simply too competitive.
Urban markets with casinos, like Cleveland and Detroit, failed to meet pre-opening profitability projections.
The Horseshoe Casino in Downtown Baltimore also earns less money from gambling than Maryland's more numerous suburban casinos.
Woinski remarked, "You look at big-city casinos, and they've all under performed.
"I'm not sure why these businesses keep doing this time and time again.
Double bankruptcies occurred at Harrah's New Orleans.
Simply put, they struggle.
First and foremost, there is too much rivalry for entertainment spending.
No gambler wants a problem getting to or from a casino, either.
Enough space for everyone
When additional states authorized gambling in an effort to prevent residents from traveling over state lines to spend money at a casino, analysts were worried about a cannibalization impact with gaming revenue occurring on the East Coast.
However, the epidemic caused a significant increase in domestic leisure travel, which was beneficial for casinos.
According to the American Gaming Association, the $14.31 billion in gaming revenue generated in the United States during the first three months of this year represented the greatest start to any calendar year in reporting history.
By the time any of these casino proposals in New York State receive formal approval, the financial windfall may have changed, but information like that undoubtedly increases the state's desire to participate in the casino resort industry.
At the earliest, next year, is anticipated before a definitive decision on who would receive the coveted casino licenses.
FACEBOOK