In the high-stakes theater of gaming and grandeur, the coveted role of casino operator within New York City’s glittering skyline looms temptingly, promising riches and risks alike. Behind the curtain of potential opulence, those who dare to dream of constructing pleasure palaces may soon waltz with the weighty partner of financial leverage.
As if whispered from the shadows, S&P Global Ratings has cast a prophetic warning: the selection of licensees for the three coveted downstate casino permits could see gaming goliaths assuming burdens of debt, a foreboding dance that might just slow their quest towards robust corporate credit metrics.
Envision the clamor and clangor of slot machines amidst the already bustling city that never sleeps, where even the stakes for entry—a staggering sum that whispers rumors of $1 billion per casino license—exceed vivid imaginations and dwarf the half-billion once thought sufficient. This tithe to the empire state does not pause to account for the colossal construction costs that beckon beyond.
Feast your eyes on the plans unfurling like blueprints of dreams—MGM Resorts International’s existing empire within Empire City and the Resorts World enclave, transforming their dormant potential into dynasties of dice and chance.
To the east, across the waters of expectation, Las Vegas Sands sketches its grandiloquent Nassau County palace, and Hard Rock International envisions its own symphony of slots and splendor near Queens’ Citi Field—with speculative price tags fluttering at the whims of fortune, $6 billion here, $8 billion there.
Yet, the clairvoyants at S&P foresee no rapid revelry, predicting that licenses will not adorn their victors’ walls until the second half of 2024 at least. Even as the anticipatory coin of investment prepares its plunge into the fountain of fortune, it appears that substantial expenditure will not cascade downwards until 2025. Such is the complexity of birthing behemoths in the bosom of New York—the sheer scale and urban labyrinth conspiring to stretch time and tease patience.
Amidst this prospective pageantry of progress, for those operators whose ambitions flower into reality, New York presents a double-edged sword gleaming with both promise and peril. Giants walk this path—Las Vegas Sands, MGM, Wynn Resorts, and an ever-prudent Caesars Entertainment—each striking a delicate balance between expansion and prudence, the allure of tomorrow’s gold-laden horizons tempered by the pressing need to keep the coffers of today free from overburdening chains of debt.
For the triumphant, for the visionaries whose mettle will have proven as resilient as the steel of their high-rise havens, the reward may eclipse even the fabled Strip of Las Vegas—a prospect of riches to match the audacity of their dreams. But first, they must navigate the twilight of conjecture and raw ambition, betting on a future where fortunes are forged in the very heart of America’s urban colossus.
