Jay-Z On line casino Bid For Instances Sq. Should Defeat Broadway League Opposition

Jay Z is a performer. The actors on Broadway are performers.

However relating to placing a on line casino in Instances Sq., proper within the coronary heart of Manhattan’s theater district, these of us are usually not singing the identical tune.

And if Jay Z can’t discover a technique to overcome neighborhood opposition, his partnership with Caesars could possibly be lifeless on arrival after it’s reviewed by the New York State Gaming Fee in January.

These of us are an enormous cause why. The Broadway League retweeted this submit in late November:

My newest on the proposed #casino growth in New York Metropolis.

Op-ed: Do the advantages of casinos outweigh the societal prices? Historical past says no by way of @CrainsNewYork

— Lucy Dadayan 🇦🇲 (@lucydadayan) November 21, 2022

And the state legislator who cochairs the Racing and Gaming Fee thinks that might be unlucky. As a result of at a sure level, a minority-led enterprise ought to at the very least have an opportunity at succeeding in New York’s quickly increasing legalized playing trade.

“He brings in star energy, however does that sway the Broadway League?,” requested State Assemblyman J. Gary Pretlow in an interview Wednesday at his Mount Vernon, N.Y. workplace. “I’ve at all times pushed for minority participation within the gaming trade. Nevertheless it actually isn’t there with the doable exception of Bally’s.”

Jay-Z definitely has stars aligned in opposition to him.

However these are the celebs who stroll onstage for the vacationers and the higher crust of New Yorkers who can afford Broadway theater tickets. They get to see the likes of Patti LuPone, who was the hypocritically unmasked chief of the masks shamers as just lately as six months in the past (and had New Yorkers cheering her foul-mouthed intolerance):

Patti LuPone’s clapback to an viewers member not carrying a face masks correctly is EPIC!

BRAVO Ms. LuPone.👏👏pic.twitter.com/g5zAOqkDco

— Peter Morley (@morethanmySLE) May 11, 2022

The place Does New York’s On line casino Business Stand?

Anyone who desires a downstate on line casino license can bid for one between now and mid-January, when the state Gaming fee will cease accepting purposes. Every software comes with a $1 million price to cowl background checks on the candidates, which will probably be a time-consuming course of.

Neighborhood boards in every of the proposed on line casino growth areas should give their approval, and that’s the place it might get tough for Jay Z, for Mets proprietor Steve Cohen, and for a bunch of different heavy hitters whose fortunes on this concern may crash and burn when these neighborhood boards vote.

All of it will unfold over the course of 2023, and there’s a risk that greater than 4 entities will go muster at each stage of the method. That might result in a second spherical of bidding for a number of of the three licenses, two of that are extensively anticipated to go to the MGM-owned Empire Metropolis On line casino in Yonkers, which at present has video lottery terminals and harness racing, and Malaysia-based Genting Inc.’s Aqueduct Racetrack, which additionally has VLTs and horse racing. However the latter could possibly be changed into a totally useful on line casino with blackjack, poker, craps, roulette, and so forth. nearly in a single day.

Which suggests one license could be left for a few of New York’s greatest egos (except for LuPone) to struggle over. It must be as epic as Hamilton on steroids.

Not all New Yorkers stay in COVID mode like LuPone, though a day by day stroll by any of the 5 boroughs reveals a big variety of individuals nonetheless carrying masks, even whereas driving alone of their automobiles.

On the flipside, some pragmatic sorts consider that embracing an increasing trade and the roles it will create form of is sensible.

A downstate New York on line casino in Instances Sq. proposed by Caesars and SL Inexperienced has garnered the assist of a gaggle of space unions and enterprise house owners.

— Ian St. Clair (@IanStClair) December 21, 2022

It’s a polarizing concern in New York, even after final January’s rollout of legalized sports activities playing went off with out nongamblers being bothered. Until they’re bothered by FanDuel operating adverts throughout Jeopardy! (which has truly occurred).

Who Else Is In The Working?

We is not going to know for certain till all the purposes are filed, and as many as a dozen may are available, together with some from rich upstate tribal on line casino operators. A minimum of 5 purposes are anticipated, however Pretlow stated he may see as many as a dozen coming in.

And he cautioned that every proposed website should additionally endure an environmental overview, which is ordinarily a time-consuming course of.

“A bidding battle may ensue if somebody stated ‘We can pay an $800 million price and a 38% tax on gross revenues, so we have now to attend and see,” Pretlow stated, explaining that every entity submitting a proposal should embrace the proportion of gross revenues that they’re prepared to pay in taxes. That’s a part of how the sport is performed in New York, the place all however one of many upstate casinos pay a 31% tax to the state.

New York state Assemblyman J. Gary Pretlow at his workplace in Mount Vernon

It could be unusual, however it is part of the method: The on line casino operator will get to decide on the quantity of tax they’re prepared to pay, not like the sports activities playing regulation underneath which the state mandated {that a} 51% tax on gross revenues (together with bonus funds issued to new clients) have to be paid. It’s the highest sports activities playing tax in america.

Cohen envisions a brand new on line casino constructed on the footprint of the outdated Shea Stadium, which is now a parking zone behind Citi Subject, house of the New York Mets, which Cohen bought for $2.4 billion in November, 2020.

Crews have simply completed tearing the outdated place down:

The final part of Shea Stadium to come back down. #Mets pic.twitter.com/kvDaveChJi

— MLB Cathedrals ⚾️ (@MLBcathedrals) December 18, 2022

Steven Ross, proprietor of the Miami Dolphins, has partnered with Wynn Resorts and is attempting to get a license for a on line casino in Hudson Yards, situated on the West Aspect a dozen blocks south of forty second Road. It’s  the place workplace and residential towers have been constructed over the previous decade and a half. Neighborhood opposition in that neighborhood, though geographically near Instances Sq., may be utterly totally different. That’s as a result of the event nonetheless wants an anchor and will be reached by a newly constructed subway station, or on foot for these staying in midtown accommodations.

Stephan Soloviev is in talks with the Sands Company, greatest identified for the Venetian resort/casinos in Las Vegas and Macao, to develop an empty plot of land on the East Aspect between thirty eighth and fortieth streets, simply south of the United Nations. His proposal reportedly features a London type big Ferris wheel, an underground on line casino on the six-acre website, with a resort, inexperienced house, and a democracy museum at floor degree.

John Catsimatidos is CEO of the Gristedes grocery retailer chain and a well known speak present host on WABC radio. He envisions a on line casino to be construct at Coney Island in Brooklyn, a website that additionally has drawn the curiosity of different gaming firms and tribal nation on line casino teams.

However he isn’t identified to have a gaming operator associate, and the issue of reaching Coney Island for many New Yorkers makes it a troublesome promote, even when there isn’t any neighborhood opposition. It will draw a really totally different demographic than a Manhattan on line casino.

Former Shawn Carter, Younger Hov and Jigga Man

Now again to Jay Z, whose actual property associate in his bid is SL Inexperienced, an actual property firm that’s the largest industrial landlord in Manhattan. That’s no small factor, as a result of SL Inexperienced has a lot of buildings that could possibly be transformed to on line casino house. That features One Vanderbilt, the brand new 93-story workplace tower subsequent door to Grand Central Terminal, only a few avenues east of the guts of Instances Sq..

The execs at SL Inexperienced can throw their weight round with as a lot gusto as LuPone can disgrace a theater patron whose masks has slipped beneath their nostril. And there are a heck of much more juiced, affordable individuals in positions of monetary energy in New York than the LuPones of the world would have you ever consider.

Even a few of the LuPone clones are rethinking their zealotry of the previous 2 1/2 years, of us like actor Tim Robbins.

Actor Tim Robbins expresses regret about turning on the unvaccinated and the unmasked: ‘We changed into tribal, indignant, vengeful individuals’

— Matthew Marsden (@matthewdmarsden) December 20, 2022

If he can change his thoughts on masks zealotry, maybe neighborhood boards can tune out the funhaters. These are individuals who don’t appear to understand that New Yorkers who select to not gamble can keep away from a brand new on line casino the identical approach they keep away from shopping for lottery tickets.

Three casinos are coming, and it’s seemingly only a matter of the place the third one finally ends up. The most secure wager: If there finally ends up being is a bidding battle for the third license, that’s going to be an costly one.

“The regulation says the gaming fee can approve as much as three, and my perception is it may be completed in expedited vogue, which implies $1.5 billion would instantly go to the state, most of which matches to training,” Pretlow stated. “They may approve none, however I don’t suppose they’ll do this. What they can’t do is approve 4.”

To be continued. They’re up in opposition to a really influential particular person in Jay-Z, who has recorded 13 solo albums all through his profession, together with 5 collaborative albums, a number of dwell albums, and extra.

“I can’t lose (you don’t know what you’re doing, doing, doing)
Put somethin’ on it!
I promote ice within the winter, I promote hearth in hell/I’m a hustler, child, I’ll promote water to a whale.

That’s from a music referred to as “U Don’t Know,” which is becoming for this specific state of affairs, simply because it was a 12 months in the past when Jay-Z was partnered with Fanatics for a sports activities playing license.

He didn’t get that one. However do you need to wager in opposition to this man failing to succeed twice? You don’t know, so accomplish that at your individual peril.