PETALING JAYA: Integrated casino resort operator Genting Malaysia Bhd
’s indirect wholly owned subsidiary, Genting New York LLC, has been awarded a commercial casino licence by the New York State Gaming Commission that paves the way for the company to start operations in the second quarter of 2026.
The company said in a filing with Bursa Malaysia that the first phase of Resorts World New York City, currently operating as a racino, would begin casino operations in the second quarter of next year.
Besides Genting Malaysia, there were two other successful bids for casino licences, namely Bally’s Corp, the operator of a golf course in the Bronx, and the Hard Rock Metropolitan Park, in which billionaire Steve Cohen, the founder of hedge fund Point72 Ventures and the majority owner of the New York Mets professional baseball team, has a stake.
Genting Malaysia had, at the end of June, laid out plans for the US$5.5bil conversion of the racino into an integrated casino resort offering entertainment, gaming, dining, recreation, and expansive public amenities over 29.54 ha in the city’s borough of Queens, as part of the company’s bid for the casino licence.
The awards of the licences followed a year-long engagement with the communities surrounding the properties, as well as regulators.
Vincent Lau, head of equity sales at Rakuten Trade, said the award of the licence would be positive for Genting Malaysia.
“Over the longer term, this will be good for the company as it expands further out of the Malaysian market, which is small in comparison to the United States market,” he told StarBiz.
CIMB Securities, in a research note issued following the initial licence approval in early December, said Genting Malaysia has a headstart of four years over Bally’s and Metropolitan Park, being the only casino in operation between mid-2026 to mid-2030.
The brokerage pointed out that Resorts World New York City would capture the full share of table games gross gaming revenue during this period, although the business volume would also correspond to its planned rollout of table games of 250 tables in mid-2026, 400 tables in 2027 and 800 tables in 2029.
According to US news reports, the three casinos would generate US$7bil in gaming revenue over the next 10 years, in addition to US$1.5bil in licensing fees as well as US$5.9bil from taxes related to the projects, to the state of New York.
This would be in addition to jobs created and other infrastructure to be built.
According to Bloomberg, the award of the licences also marked the first time in modern history that full-fledged casinos would be allowed to operate within the boundaries of the five boroughs that make up the city of New York.
At present, among the three bidders, only Genting Malaysia’s racino have gambling operations comprising a racetrack and slot machines.
The initial approval by the New York State Gaming Commission for the three bids was announced in early December and the final decision was made to award the licences following further evaluations that included scrutiny of the bidders’ “security, fitness and background”.
In Genting Malaysia’s June proposal, Genting Americas East president Robert DeSalvio said the casino would “provide new career opportunities and tax revenue almost immediately, as soon as July 2026”.
Under this proposal, Genting Malaysia plans an integrated casino resort with 2,000 hotel rooms and a 500,000-sq ft gaming floor with 6,000 slot machines and 800 gaming tables.
There would also be a 7,000-seat entertainment venue, more than 7,000 car park spaces, over 30 food and beverage outlets, large-scale meeting space; other resort amenities and more than 4.04 ha of community greenspace.
To fund the proposed Resorts World New York City project, Genting Bhd, which launched a takeover offer for Genting Malaysia on Oct 13 this year, had announced several debt raising exercises in recent weeks, in part to finance the takeover of Genting Malaysia.
Genting now owns 73.13% stake in Genting Malaysia after failing to take Genting Malaysia private at RM2.35 a share following several extensions, with the offer closing on Dec 1.
Under an existing RM10bil medium term note (MTN) facility, Genting has issued debt totalling RM2.1bil since November to fund the acquisition of Genting Malaysia shares.
Genting had last week also announced an unrated RM5bil MTN programme to finance investments, capital expenditure and working capital needs.
Genting Malaysia operates Resorts World Catskills and Resorts World Hudson Valley, both in upstate New York as well as owning a 12.14-ha prime freehold waterfront site overlooking Biscayne Bay in downtown Miami, Florida.
Parent company Genting owns Resorts World Las Vegas.
Yesterday, Genting Malaysia closed up two sen to RM2.06 while Genting closed three sen higher at RM3.05.
