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New York City’s first full-scale casino opened just weeks ago. Already, it finds itself at the center of a costly financial standoff with the state — one that lawmakers have now partially addressed while leaving the core dispute unresolved.
Resorts World New York City launched April 28, bringing live table games to Queens for the first time. Located in South Ozone Park adjacent to Aqueduct Racetrack, the facility opened with more than 240 table games and 2,500 slot machines. Its debut was quickly shadowed by a fight over hundreds of millions of dollars in required payments to the state’s horse racing industry.
The 56% tax question at the heart of the dispute
New York law requires commercial casinos to make annual “racing support” payments to the New York Racing Association, a nonprofit that manages the state’s three major racetracks. The Gaming Commission believes those payments, worth at least $150 million annually, must be paid on top of the casino’s existing taxes. Resorts World argues that the racing support payments are already included in the taxes it pays.
Owned by Malaysian conglomerate Genting, Resorts World says it proposed its 56% slot tax rate during last year’s licensing competition as inclusive of racing support. The commission’s own website, however, lists the 56% rate with no mention of racing support, stating that all of that revenue flows to education and the Metropolitan Transportation Authority.
Albany Law School government professor Bennett Liebman questioned how the situation arose at all. As reported by New York Focus, Liebman said:
“This whole episode makes little substantive sense. How do you plan to build a $5.5 billion casino without knowing for certain whether millions of dollars in required racing-support payments are included in your tax payments?”
Why Resorts World bears the burden alone — for now
The financial pressure on Resorts World is significant. Metropolitan Park, backed by Mets owner Steve Cohen in Queens, and Bally’s in the Bronx are not scheduled to open until mid-2030. Current law requires Resorts World to shoulder all payments alone until the other casinos open — an exposure that could surpass $500 million over the next four years. Once all three properties are operating, the burden will be divided among them.
Spokesperson Stefan Friedman pointed to the company’s track record, citing a 15-year history of contributing more than $4.5 billion in education funding, $2.5 billion to horse racing interests, and $500 million to the MTA from its video lottery operation at the same site.
A legislative fix — but not a full resolution
The New York legislature passed a bill June 5 that preserves gaming revenues paid to horse racetracks without addressing whether Resorts World is directly responsible for those payments going forward. The legislation, tucked into a broader funding bill, states that the Gaming Commission “may forward” tax payments it receives from a New York City casino to the nonprofit New York Racing Association. The shift takes effect immediately but expires after one year.
Critically, the bill avoids resolving the underlying legal dispute about whether Resorts World can count the racing support payments as part of its total 56% tax rate — or whether, as the Gaming Commission believes, the payments must be made separately. If Resorts World’s interpretation ultimately wins, it could cut into tax revenue the state expected to flow to public schools and the MTA.
Gov. Kathy Hochul supported the measure. “Given the ongoing dispute between the Gaming Commission and Resorts World regarding racing support payments, this legislation is designed to ensure that the racing industry, which has long relied on similar funding, does not suffer adverse consequences,” a Hochul spokesperson said in a news post by BloodHorse.
In a statement issued via PR Newswire, Resorts World welcomed the outcome.
Spokesperson Stefan Friedman said the casino was “grateful that the Legislature made the necessary changes allowing for the state gaming commission to directly distribute funds to the horse racing industry,” adding that Resorts World “looks forward to working in partnership with the state and continuing our standing as New York’s largest taxpayer.”
Queens State Sen. Joseph Addabbo, who chairs the Senate Committee on Racing, Gaming and Wagering, previously described the dispute as a matter of competing interpretations. “That’s part of the challenge,” he said, “getting people to the table to figure out what the 56 percent actually means.”
What’s at stake beyond the New York casino
Racing support payments date to 2001, when New York legalized video lottery terminals and required operators to fund a struggling horse racing industry. When the state authorized three downstate casino licenses in 2023, lawmakers maintained the requirement to prevent new full-scale casinos from undercutting revenue that video gambling facilities had long channeled to the tracks.
The one-year legislative fix buys time, but the core question — whether Resorts World owes $150 million a year on top of its existing taxes — remains unanswered. Resorts World’s Catskills property faces its own pressures, with Sullivan County negotiating a bailout valued at more than $500 million amid $300 million in debt the facility is working to refinance.
How all of these disputes are ultimately resolved will have real consequences for the casino, New York’s education funding, and the horse racing industry it has long helped sustain.
