New York City's First Casino Makes Its Debut
History was made on Tuesday, April 28,2026 as Resorts World New York City became the first full-fledged legal casino in New York City’s 400-year history.
The facility, located adjacent to Aqueduct Racetrack in South Ozone Park in the borough of Queens, opened in 2011 and had more than 6,500 slot machines in its previous incarnation as a "racino."
But as the first phase of a $5.5 billion expansion plan has been completed, Resorts World for the first time is offering more than 240 table games such as blackjack, roulette, and craps along with 2,500 slot machines.
The city authorized three casino licenses in December, with Metropolitan Park - also in Queens, adjacent to the New York Mets' Citi Field - and a Bally's facility in The Bronx being the others chosen by the New York State Gaming Location Board.
But the latter two sites are being built from the ground up, and each is not expected to open until mid-2030. That gave Resorts World an advantage, since it was able to repurpose its racino within just months.
A 7,000-seat entertainment venue and an expansion of the Hyatt Regency hotel on the property from 400 to 2,000 rooms are part of subsequent phases of development. The number of table games also is planned to more than triple to almost 800, and the slot machine inventory will include a similar rise in numbers.
The expansion is expected to be completed by 2031. Aqueduct Racetrack will close its doors for good at the end of June 2026 after having held thoroughbred horse races for more than 130 years.
The largest casino in the U.S. - or the world?
KT Lim, the Resorts World chairman, announced, "We are all in!" as he made the first ceremonial dice roll at a craps table as part of a press conference that featured rapper and Queens native Nas.
Resorts World executive Kevin Jones bypassed modesty in his statements.
"We are changing the landscape of New York City with a building that will never close," Jones said. "This is literally going to be the world’s largest casino. This is historic - this is going to be a tectonic shift.”
Resorts World officials in their winning bid estimated up to $3 billion in annual revenue for the project at maturity post-2031, and it offered tax rates of 56% for slot machine revenue and 30% for table games.
That eventually could mean more than $1 billion in annual tax revenue for the city from this project alone, and perhaps more than that annually from the other two projects combined – and that’s not even counting additional new tax revenue from hotel room bills, restaurants, and other amenities now under construction at the three sites.
Resorts World has paid $600 million for its license, and projects another $1.9 billion in total tax payments from 2026-2029, with the tax figures skyrocketing after a full buildout of the site is complete.
The recipient of the money will be the cash-strapped Metropolitan Transit Authority, the largest such agency in North America. The MTA's seven bridges and two tunnels handle nearly 1 million automobiles and trucks per weekday, with more than 11 million passengers riding its buses, trains, and subways.
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The NYC casino bidding saga
The multi-year bidding process that ended in December had quite a few twists and turns.
At one point, there were 11 bids in the New York City area for one of the three available casino licenses - five in Manhattan, two in Queens, and one each in Brooklyn, The Bronx, Long Island, and Westchester County.
The heavy favorites were Resorts World and Empire City, with the latter being adjacent to Yonkers Raceway just north of New York City. The reason was that the state's selection process gave major deference to local community input.
Because each of those sites already have operated as racinos with thousands of slot machines each for more than a decade along with a long history of horse racing, residents in each area saw the locations as strong job providers rather than potential traffic headaches.
The upgrades for each facility would be achieved far more quickly as well, as evidenced by Resorts World rolling out the first phase of its project in less than six months.
The other choice seemed likely to be one of the Manhattan projects that gained the necessary approvals.
But local opposition eliminated all but four of the bids, including all of the Manhattan proposals. Then in October 2025, the Yonkers property owners surprisingly withdrew their casino bid due to what were said to be unfavorable shifts in economic projections for a return on investment on their $2.3 billion upgrade plan.
One of those issues was that the license for the operator would be for a term of 15 years - not 30 years, as had been expected. The news stunned local elected officials, with Yonkers Mayor Mike Spano describing the withdrawal as “nothing short of a betrayal to the people of Yonkers and Westchester County.”
The outcome was that the three surviving bidders obtained the three casino licenses - agreeing to pay a combined $1.6 billion in upfront fees for the privilege.
Casinos in large American cities
While it is not close to being one of the largest U.S. cities, Las Vegas still reigns as the nation's casino capital. Large cities traditionally have not featured casinos.
The opening of Resorts World in New York City continues a trend that is changing that pattern, however. SugarHouse's launch in Philadelphia in 2010 enabled that city to surpass Detroit as the largest location with a full-fledged casino.
Chicago now has a temporary Bally's casino, with a permanent $1.7 billion location scheduled to open by the end of 2026.
Los Angeles is now the largest city in the nation that does not have a casino within its city limits, and Houston, Phoenix, and Dallas are among other cities without the gambling option.
