In 2025, the race for three downstate New York casino licences was the storyline of the year, and a new lobbying report released Sunday showed that Bally’s Bronx, Resorts World NYC and Hard Rock Metropolitan Park were among the city’s top lobbying spenders for the second year in a row.
According to the New York City Office of the City Clerk’s Lobbying Bureau annual report, all three licence winners finished in the top 10 NYC companies by reported lobbying spend last year:
- Queens Future, LLC (Metropolitan Park): $1.68 million, most among casino bidders and second-most in the city
- Genting New York LLC (Resorts World): $1.14 million, fourth-most in the city
- Bally’s Corp: $830,661, sixth-most in the city
A fourth casino hopeful, The Coney, was also represented in the top 10, although the bid was denied by its appointed community advisory committee. The Coney’s corporate vehicle TSG Coney Island Entertainment Holdco reported a sobering $1.4 million in lobbying spend, third-most in the city despite the early exit.
Queens Future and Bally’s enlisted a total of 12 firms each for their bids, which tied for most in the city. Genting paid just three and The Coney paid four.
Heightened spending goes back multiple years
Ironically, the three licence winners from 2025 were also the top three biggest lobbying spenders in 2024, which in hindsight might have forecasted the end results. That year, Metropolitan Park paid $1.35 million in lobbying spend, by far the most in the city. Genting was second at $990,000 and Bally’s was third at $914,161. Metropolitan Park hired 14 firms in 2024, the most in the city that year and nearly double Bally’s second-place total of nine.
Metropolitan Park’s high-dollar lobbying blitz also extends back to 2023, as two different entities related to the project both placed in the top 10 spenders that year.
New Green Willets, LLC, an entity formed by New York Mets owner and Metropolitan Park partner Steve Cohen, reported the second-highest lobbying spend in the city ($946,809) that year, and the project’s casino partner Seminole Hard Rock Entertainment was the fifth-highest spender at $660,000. The combined total exceeded $1.5 million, which is on par with 2024 and 2025 totals.
Of the three eventual licence winners, Metropolitan Park’s $8 billion price tag is easily the highest compared to Bally’s ($4 billion) and Resorts World ($5.5 billion). However, it could be seen as the most stable project from a financial standpoint given its association with Cohen. According to Forbes, Cohen’s net worth of $23 billion makes him the 104th-richest man in the world.
New York casino politics on full display
The stratospheric projections of the New York casino market led applicants to go all-in on their proposals over the last two years. The New York Gaming Facility Location Board, which ultimately recommended all three finalists for licensure, estimated that the casinos could generate $7 billion in gaming tax revenue and $5.9 billion in other tax revenue in the 10-year period from 2027-2036.
This allure created a cutthroat political environment for a field that was once as wide as 11 potential bids. The projects required various approvals and sign-offs depending on zoning and other factors. In turn, most stakeholders applied a full-court press to survive and advance.
In one example, Metropolitan Park was nearly stymied by state Senator Jessica Ramos, who refused to carry the necessary rezoning legislation. This roadblock was eventually overcome by sidestepping Ramos in favour of Senator John Liu, whose district encompasses a much smaller portion of the project.
Liu sponsored the legislation instead and Metropolitan Park encountered no other hurdles. Metropolitan Park’s lobbying spend from its various arms totaled $4.6 million over a three-year period through 2025.
Big costs for Bally’s
Bally’s Bronx also made political headlines prior to its approval. The project encountered zoning resistance from City Council, but was aided twice by former New York City Mayor Eric Adams.
In one instance, Adams lowered the threshold for approval on a council vote by submitting a letter of recommendation, and in another case, Adams vetoed a council rejection altogether, citing a desire to keep the pool of applicants as wide as possible. These boosts allowed Bally’s to stay in contention. From there, the company made additional commitments to its bid at the behest of its community advisory committee in order to move on to state consideration.
For Bally’s, the heightened lobbying spend is noteworthy given the piles of expenses related to its New York casino project. In addition to the $500 million licence fee and $500 million capital investment minimum, the company also owed a $115 million kicker to the Trump Organization, from which it purchased the Bally’s Bronx site. The added fee was only applicable if the casino won a licence.
Bally’s also has billion-dollar projects under development in Chicago and Las Vegas, and is currently in the process of trying to turn around embattled Australian casino operator Star Entertainment. The company has not released fourth-quarter or full-year results as of writing.
Jess Marquez
Jess has covered the global gaming industry since 2022. A native of Reno, Nevada, he’d like to note that it’s Ne-va-da, not Ne-VAH-da.
Original article: https://igamingbusiness.com/casino/new-york-casino-lobbying-report/
