GGRAsia – GEN Malaysia win if NY has downstate casinos: analyst

GEN Malaysia win if NY has downstate casinos: analyst

Nov 08, 2021 Newsdesk Latest News, Top of the deck, World

Global casino operator Genting Malaysia Bhd might know after June 30 next year, whether New York state, in the United States, will initiate a process to offer up to three downstate commercial casino licences, says a Sunday note from Maybank IB Research.

“A downstate commercial casino will be the ‘ultimate prize’ for Resorts World [Casino] New York City, as it will be allowed to deploy table games and be located in or near New York City,” wrote analyst Samuel Yin Shao Yang.

Maybank’s note comes after the New York State Gaming Commission launched, in late October, a request-for-information (RFI) process on the possibility of three downstate commercial casino licences, seeking information from interested parties to determine the way forward.

Genting Malaysia’s 100 percent-owned current downstate facility, Resorts World Casino New York City (pictured), is – notwithstanding its name – presently unable to offer table games and is instead a video lottery terminal (VLT) venue, according to Maybank.

A downstate casino licence would help that property “accrete circa US$145 million… in net profit per annum,” suggested Mr Yin.

The institution said it had not been able to clarify New York state’s 2020 casino gross gaming revenue (GGR) due to different reporting standards for tribal casinos versus commercial ones.

But Maybank said the casinos in five states that surround New York state recorded in total US$7.4 billion in GGR for 2020, which it noted was significantly more than the “pre-Covid-19 GGR of Singapore,” which in 2019 had been US$4.5 billion.

The New York gaming regulatory body would prepare and distribute a report on a request-for-information process it had initiated into the downstate casino licence topic, noted Maybank. The deadline for responses would be December 10, it added.

The commission would prepare and distribute a report with the results of the RFI process to the New York governor and state legislature “no later than six months after 10 December 2021,” noted Maybank.

Genting Malaysia has a 49 percent interest in an upstate New York commercial casino – Resorts World Catskills – via an investment in Empire Resorts Inc.