NYS Gaming Facility Location Board Revises Casino Timeline

ALBANY—The New York State Gaming Facility Location Board on June 27 unanimously approved an updated timeline for the Request for Applications for up to three downstate commercial casino licenses, commencing with a June 27, 2025 application deadline and concluding with Commission license determination by Dec. 31, 2025.

“This timeline encompasses all legal requirements that potential bidders must meet before we may evaluate applications,” said Board Chair Vicki Been. “This roadmap also gives communities ample opportunity to have their voices heard, establishes a level playing field among multiple competitors, and affords serious applicants the opportunity to participate in a lucrative and transformational process.”

The Board approved the following amendments to the Request for Applications schedule:

Applications will be due June 27, 2025. Community Advisory Committees will form immediately thereafter and commence their statutory work.
CACs must vote on their respective project by Sept. 30, 2025. Those
Applicants approved by their CAC will then submit supplemental application material—including a proposed tax rate—to the board for evaluation and consideration.

The board expects to make decisions by Dec. 1, 2025, followed by commission licensure by Dec. 31, 2025. This ensures that New York State will collect the already-booked casino license fee(s) ahead of schedule, the Gaming Commission stated.

In addition to CAC approval, all applicants must complete all entitlement processes (land-use/zoning, environmental, etc.) before being eligible for consideration by the Board. The City of New York has amended its zoning code to allow licensed commercial casino gambling as a permitted use by right. However, at least four publicly known potential applicants are not currently able to avail themselves of the zoning change due to specific requirements not covered by the amendment, including mapping changes, grading or revocable consent to construct over streets.

The New York City Department of City Planning has advised the board that the four impacted entities expect to emerge from the zoning (ULURP) process by the end of June 2025.

Additionally, all applicants must complete the State Environmental Quality Review Act, or SEQR, process before submitting an application. SEQR process is lengthy, with the purpose to identify any potential adverse environmental effects of proposed actions, assesses their significance, and propose measures to eliminate or mitigate significant impacts. Applicants are expected to be substantially complete with the environmental reviews by the end of June 2025.

Significant components of a proposal will most likely change during the environmental and zoning approval processes. Requiring application submission after both processes are substantially complete ensures that the board, CACs, and the public will be reviewing and considering accurate proposals, according to the Gaming Commission.

A day earlier, the New York State Gaming Commission unanimously approved the appointment of Vicki Been as Chair of the New York Gaming Facility Location Board.

“Professor Been’s expertise is tailor-made to guide this process and I am proud to name her Chair of the Gaming Facility Location Board,” said Commission Chair Brian O’Dwyer. “This outstanding team is performing a great public service for which we are all grateful. We look forward to a robust competition for up to three licenses.”

Professor Been, a member of the Board since 2022, is the Judge Edward Weinfeld Professor of Law at New York University School of Law, an Affiliated Professor of Public Policy of the NYU Wagner Graduate School of Public Service and a Faculty Director of NYU’s Furman Center for Real Estate and Urban Policy. Professor Been returned to NYU following public service as Commissioner of Housing Preservation and Development for the City of New York and Deputy Mayor for Housing and Economic Development.

In addition to Professor Been, the Gaming Facility Location Board includes: Quenia A. Abreu, President and Chief Executive Officer of the New York Women’s Chamber of Commerce; Stuart Rabinowitz, Senior Counsel to Meltzer, Lippe, Goldstein & Breitstone, LLP; Carlos P. Naudon, a retired attorney, Certified Public Accountant and Director, President and Chief Executive Officer of Ponce Bank, a federal savings association headquartered in The Bronx, and of its publicly traded parent company, Ponce Financial Group, Inc.