3 future New York City casinos could get the OK on Monday

The long-awaited decision on the future of gaming in New York City is near as state officials are expected to reveal the fates of three casino bids on Monday.

A yearslong effort to bring full-fledged casinos to the Big Apple moves into the final phase when the New York Gaming Facility Location Board shares its recommendations on the final three bids left standing after a dramatic bidding war. The group meets Monday at 10 a.m.

The last three remaining bids include Bally’s in the Bronx, Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Queens, and Resorts World New York City, also in Queens.

Based on the board’s recommendation, the bids that receive the OK will go before the state’s Gaming Commission by the end of December for the ultimate green light.

The arrival of full-fledged casino resorts in New York City has been years in the making.

The gambling industry spent mightily to secure approval from New York voters in a referendum authorizing the licensing of up to seven full casinos with live table games back in 2013. But the state initially allowed upstate venues a head start.

Nearly all the casino proposals faced some degree of local pushback.

New York Mets owner Steve Cohen announced plans Tuesday for a new development called Metropolitan Park that he hopes will include a casino and sportsbook.

Since the 2013 referendum, four full casinos have opened in New York, though all of them are located upstate, miles away from Manhattan. The state also has nine gambling halls offering slot machines and other electronic gambling machines but no live table games.

Some three hours drive north of Manhattan are the Native American tribe-owned Mohegan Sun and Foxwoods casinos in Connecticut. Two hours south are the New Jersey shore casinos of Atlantic City, and less than two hours due west in Pennsylvania is the tribe-owned Wind Creek Casino at the former site of Bethlehem Steel.

Despite the competition from seemingly all corners, New York City’s dense market could sustain three gambling halls, depending on where they’re located, suggests John Holden, a business professor at Indiana University who specializes in gambling law.

“We typically see fairly rosy revenue projections put out by the gaming industry, but the New York City market is really without comparison,” he said.