No decision on New York casino licensing until late 2025
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ALBANY — New York likely won’t award downstate casino licenses before late 2025, state regulators said Monday, as the timeline bidders expected keeps pushing backward.
State Gaming Commission Executive Director Robert Williams told board members “practically, it makes little sense” to open what will be a 30-day window for companies to put in bids until multiple regulatory hurdles are cleared, including New York City zoning and land-use reviews and state environmental reviews.
Those will take up most of 2024, Williams said. Then, each bidder must get approval to move forward from a local “citizens advisory council” — which, realistically, won’t happen before mid-2025.
As a result, the casino siting board won’t be ready to make licensing decisions till “late 2025,” Williams said. He noted the state wasn’t banking on receiving casino fees before the 2025-26 fiscal year, meaning the siting process is still on time.
In January, lobbyists and industry insiders said they expected the 30-day bidding window to begin in the first half of this year, though by February it was clear the process wasn’t moving that quickly.
