Awash in $22 million in application fees, New York State now enters the next phase: The winnowing of the field either through lack of financing or the formation of alliances. After all, there are property owners with no operating experience and some operators with no place to hang their hats yet. Also, the minimum capital investment has yet to be decided upon and promulgated. That alone could find some candidates to be all hat and no cattle. Then there are mystery applicants like Hudson Valley Gaming and Capital Region Gaming. (They share the same legal representation, we know that much.) Och-Ziff Real Estate and Rolling Hills Entertainment LLP are also homeless for the time being. Nor is the aegis for David Flaum‘s Albany-area casino known at this point.
Saratoga Raceway & Casino‘s satellite project in East Greenbush has already hit a roadbump. With 22 casino projects jostling for space in New York State, some are bound to be infelicitously located and this seems to be the case in East Greenbush. Saratoga’s chosen site would bump up against some single-family dwellings, which has been enough to stir the opposition. But it shouldn’t come as a sudden shock: Saratoga’s owned the land at least since February, having spent $2 million for this piece of real estate. Both East Greenbush and wider Rensselaer County voted “aye” on casino expansion back in November, so opponents will have a tough case to make.
Inside the numbers. Is Sands Bethlehem already over the hill? Its hometown paper thinks so.
That’s some bar tab. Thrillist goes over Hakkasan by the numbers (100 pounds of confetti a week) and comes across some drinks that will leave you considerably lighter in the wallet. For $1,330 you can quiff a Macallan single-malt whiskey and even that is a trifle compared to the nine-bottle “Dynastie” champagne orgy. That’ll set you back $55,555. Where do they find the people who can afford this — and do?
