{"id":214069,"date":"2026-04-29T14:16:14","date_gmt":"2026-04-29T14:16:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/214069\/"},"modified":"2026-04-29T14:16:14","modified_gmt":"2026-04-29T14:16:14","slug":"resorts-world-new-york-citys-first-full-casino-opens-in-queens","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/214069\/","title":{"rendered":"Resorts World \u2013 New York City\u2019s First Full Casino Opens in Queens"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n Posted on: April 29, 2026, 08:44h.\u00a0\n <\/p>\n

\n Last updated on: April 29, 2026, 08:44h.\n <\/p>\n

\"Avatar <\/p>\n

New York City\u2019s first full-scale casino, complete with live table games, opened with a ceremonial dice roll on Tuesday, with legendary New York rapper Nas, an investor and partner in the project, in attendance.<\/p>\n

\"NYCLeft to right: Chairman and CEO of Genting Group Lim Kok Thay, Queens Borough President Donovan Richards Jr., and Nas roll the dice at the opening of New York City\u2019s first Las Vegas-style casino. (Johnny Nunez\/Getty)<\/p>\n

The new casino is an expansion of Resorts World New York City, located in Ozone Park, Queens, right next to the historic Aqueduct Racetrack and close to JFK Airport.<\/p>\n

The upgrade transforms Resorts World into the city\u2019s first Las Vegas-style casino, with more than 200 table games, including blackjack, roulette, baccarat, and craps, as well as more than 2,500 slot-style video lottery terminals (VLTs).<\/p>\n

Robert DeSalvio, president of Genting Americas East, which owns and operates the casino, said the venue had doubled its workforce, now employing more than 2,200\u00a0people, including 950 new table-game dealers.<\/p>\n

$5.5 Billion Phase 2<\/p>\n

And this is just phase one. Genting has pledged to invest $5.5 billion in turning Resorts World New York City into a destination integrated resort, featuring a new hotel, a 7,000-seat entertainment venue, more than 12 acres of public green space, expanded shopping and dining options, and additional gaming capacity.<\/p>\n

The expansion will give the resort a total of 2,000 guest rooms, making it the\u00a0largest hotel complex in New York City.<\/p>\n

The site has long been home to the Aqueduct Racetrack, one of New York State\u2019s major horse racing venues. In 2011, Genting won the right to build a racino at Aqueduct after state lawmakers allowed racetracks to host VGTs.<\/p>\n

Thanks to its location within the most populous area of the US, it quickly became one of the highest-grossing slots venues in the nation.<\/p>\n

Two More in Pipeline<\/p>\n

In 2013, voters approved a constitutional amendment allowing up to seven full commercial casinos in the state. Between 2014 and 2015, four casinos were built in Upstate New York, while a 10-year moratorium blocked new gaming venues downstate. That gave the upstate casinos time to survive without competition from New York City.<\/p>\n

In 2022, state lawmakers accelerated the timeline in the state budget. Resorts World was one of three projects granted licenses to operate full-scale casinos in 2025. Another is an $8.1 billion Hard Rock-branded resort next to Citi Field ballpark, proposed by Mets owner Steve Cohen.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Bally\u2019s plans a $4 billion venue at the Ferry Point golf course in the Bronx, though both are years away from completion.<\/p>\n

The advent of casinos to New York City could spell trouble for Atlantic City by siphoning off a huge share of its core customer base \u2013 day-trippers from the New York metro area. This has led to increasing calls to allow casinos in North Jersey, such as at the Meadowlands or Monmouth Park racetracks, a move that would require approval via a constitutional amendment by New Jersey voters.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Posted on: April 29, 2026, 08:44h.\u00a0 Last updated on: April 29, 2026, 08:44h. New York City\u2019s first full-scale…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":214070,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[84457,9,24,84458,63,3070,122,31792,124,123,1664],"class_list":["post-214069","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-queens","tag-atlantic-city-competition","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-new-york-gambling-laws","tag-nyc","tag-nyc-casino","tag-queens","tag-queens-casino","tag-queens-headlines","tag-queens-news","tag-resorts-world-new-york-city"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/214069","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=214069"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/214069\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/214070"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=214069"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=214069"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=214069"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}