{"id":64582,"date":"2025-12-08T19:29:08","date_gmt":"2025-12-08T19:29:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/64582\/"},"modified":"2025-12-08T19:29:08","modified_gmt":"2025-12-08T19:29:08","slug":"snl-weekend-update-pokes-fun-at-new-york-city-bronx-casino","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/64582\/","title":{"rendered":"SNL Weekend Update Pokes Fun at New York City Bronx Casino"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n Posted on: December 8, 2025, 01:23h.\u00a0\n <\/p>\n

\n Last updated on: December 8, 2025, 01:23h.\n <\/p>\n

\"Avatar <\/p>\n

SNL\u00a0weighed in on the Bally\u2019s Bronx casino
\n\u201cWeekend Update\u201d anchor Michael Che says slot machines aren\u2019t the only risky thing about the Bronx<\/p>\n

Saturday Night Live didn\u2019t miss an opportunity to take an easy jab at one of the three downstate New York casino projects recently commissioned.<\/p>\n

\"SNLA screengrab of Michael Che and Saturday Night Live\u2019s \u201cWeekend Update\u201d poking fun at a casino being authorized in the Bronx. Bally\u2019s is moving forward with building a casino in what is the most dangerous of the five New York City boroughs. (Image: Casino.org)<\/p>\n

On Saturday night, SNL \u201cWeekend Update\u201d host Michael Che brought New York\u2019s awarding of three casino projects<\/a> to the satirical news desk. While two casinos were backed for Queens, Che, born and raised in Manhattan, took issue with the lone gaming project endorsed for the Bronx.<\/p>\n

Officials for the first time have approved building casinos in New York City, including one in the Bronx. Because, let\u2019s be honest, every visit to the Bronx is a gamble,\u201d Che said.<\/p>\n

\u201cGlad you said it,\u201d followed up Che\u2019s SNL co-anchor Colin Jost, a Staten Island native. \u00a0<\/p>\n

Is the Bronx Safe?<\/p>\n

Che\u2019s comments about the Bronx casino deal with the borough being notorious for crime.<\/p>\n

The city\u2019s northernmost borough, the Bronx, suffered from notoriously poor housing conditions and a steep population decline beginning in the late 1960s and continuing through the 1980s and 90s. Crime, gangs, and homelessness were rampant.<\/p>\n

However, since the turn of the century, things have improved a bit in the Bronx. So, is the Bronx still risky, as Che implies?<\/p>\n

While the Bronx does have relatively safe areas, specifically, Riverdale, Spuyten Duyvil, Pelham Bay, and Morris Park, the Bronx remains the most dangerous of New York\u2019s five boroughs.<\/p>\n

According to the New York Police Department, six of the city\u2019s top 10 most violent neighborhoods are in the Bronx. Only East Harlem in Manhattan has a higher violent crime rate than the six Bronx precincts.<\/p>\n

In the Bronx\u2019s Hunts Point\/Longwood neighborhoods, the NYPD says there are 2,597 instances of violent crime per 100K people, among the highest violent crime rates in the nation.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Bally\u2019s Bronx Casino<\/p>\n

Che was referencing the New York Gaming Facility Location Board recommending that the New York State Gaming Commission grant Bally\u2019s Bronx a casino license. The facility citing board rendered its three endorsements on Dec. 1. The state gaming regulator is expected to formally issue the three downstate New York gaming permits by the end of the year.<\/p>\n

Once viewed as a long shot, Bally\u2019s Bronx\u2019s odds improved greatly after Las Vegas Sands, Wynn Resorts, and MGM Resorts pulled their New York applications, and four bids were denied via Community Advisory Committees.<\/p>\n

NYC Mayor Eric Adams singlehandedly saved the Bally\u2019s bid at Ferry Point Park, vetoing a City Council decision not to approve a land-use application to allow a commercial development on the city-owned land. Bally\u2019s ended up being one of only three qualified bids, with the location board possessing three casino permits to award.<\/p>\n

Bally\u2019s has proposed a $4 billion investment at the Bally\u2019s Golf Links site that includes 3,500 slot machines, 250 table games, and a sportsbook. The resort to accompany the city-owned golf course is to feature 500 hotel rooms, a 2,000-person event center, parking for nearly 5K vehicles, and 4K permanent jobs.<\/p>\n

The Trump Organization stands to be an immediate winner with Bally\u2019s Bronx. When the president\u2019s family-held company sold the golf lease rights to Bally\u2019s in late 2023 for $60 million, the terms included a condition that the fee would increase by $115 million<\/a> should Bally\u2019s someday operate a casino on the property.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Posted on: December 8, 2025, 01:23h.\u00a0 Last updated on: December 8, 2025, 01:23h. SNL\u00a0weighed in on the Bally\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":64583,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[38],"tags":[30973,5475,128,30974,9373,33794,9,24,33795,63,122,2039,2040,129,131,130,20084],"class_list":{"0":"post-64582","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-the-bronx","8":"tag-ballys-bronx","9":"tag-ballys","10":"tag-bronx","11":"tag-bronx-casino","12":"tag-colin-jost","13":"tag-michael-che","14":"tag-new-york","15":"tag-new-york-city","16":"tag-ny-casinos","17":"tag-nyc","18":"tag-queens","19":"tag-saturday-night-live","20":"tag-snl","21":"tag-the-bronx","22":"tag-the-bronx-headlines","23":"tag-the-bronx-news","24":"tag-weekend-update"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64582","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=64582"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64582\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/64583"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=64582"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=64582"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=64582"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}