By:  Hadassa Kalatizadeh

Lobbyists are getting involved in trying to influence city and state legislators, the mayor’s and governor’s offices, borough presidents, and community boards in their votes for the downstate casino license selection.

As reported by Crain’s NY, different bidders, hoping to be granted the downstate NYC casino license, have already tapped outside lobbying firms to make their case and garner support for their respective plans.  In fact, in 2023 already more than $2.6 million has been paid in total to multiple lobbyists to pitch different gaming license options, per Crain’s review of public records.

So far, the biggest spender in the lobbying game has been billionaire Steve Cohen.  The Mets owner and hedge fund titan, who has paired with gaming partner Hardrock to offer its bid to open a casino next to Citi Field in Queens, has already spent over $817,806 to eight different lobbying, law and real estate firms to help garner support, per Crain’s.  Included in this budget was $337,306 paid to law firm Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson since January, with listed “targets” include the mayor’s chief counsel Brendan McGuire.

The funds, which were paid through an entity named New Green Willets,  also included $192,500 doled out to lobbyists at MirRam Group, $100,000 to Dickinson & Avella, as well as smaller payouts to Moonshot Strategies, Hollis Public Affairs, Lemma Strategies, RXR Development and former Assembly member Marcos A. Crespo.  Cohen is probably spending more on lobbying because he has extra hurdles to cross– including getting the city and state to pass legislation just to give him permission to build anything in the parking lots surrounding Citi Field.  This goal was listed as one of the priorities in his lobbying disclosures.

Rhode Island-based Bally’s, which has offered a bid to open a 10-acre casino on the Trump Golf Links course in the Bronx, has already shelled out more than $279,000 to six different firms so far in 2023 to lobby their case, records show.  Also, Wynn Resorts, which has partnered with Related Companies, aspiring to build a casino in the Vacant Western half of Hudson Yards in Manhattan, has already paid out $120,000 this year to Empire Consulting Group.   To help lobby its case for a gambling license, Wynn also paid another $40,000 to Tonio Burgos and Associates to lobby officials including Comptroller Brad Lander and Community Board 4 chair Jeffrey LeFrancois, and also paid another $16,000 to Mercury Public Affairs.

Developer SL Green, which has partnered with Caesars and Jay-Z, to turn its 54-story office building at 1515 Broadway in Times Square into a hotel and casino, has already paid $100,000 toBerlinRosen and Ostroff Associates in 2023 to promote its bid, among other smaller contracts.  Partner Caesars, also paid $54,000 to public relations firm Bolton-St. Johns, targeting City Council members, a Manhattan community board and Borough President Mark Levine.

Joseph Sitt’s Thor Equities, who is offering a Coney Island casino, entered a $25,000 monthly contract to pay lobbyist Patricia Lynch.  Its partner, Saratoga Casino Holdings paid $40,000 to Featherstonhaugh, Wiley & Clyne to garner support.

Also, the Hudson Bay Company, which own Saks Fifth Avenue, has so far paid $60,000 in 2023 to Cozen O’Connor Public Strategies to help make its case to build a casino on top of the Saks Fifth Avenue flagship store in Midtown Manhattan.

Finally, Las Vegas Sands, who has made a bid proposing a casino in Nassau County, recently reported paying $140,000 to the attorneys and lobbyists at Brown & Weinraub, $60,000 to Long Island-based Ten Key Strategies, and another $22,500 to the Parkside Group.

As per Crain’s, the developers and their partnered gaming companies probably feel they can stand to spend with the stakes so high–being that a NYC area casino license has been estimated to generate some $2 billion annually once the ball gets rolling.  “Each of them have a pitch about why their proposal would be good for, fill in the blank: the neighborhood, the borough, the city, the economy, the arts sector,” Manhattan Borough President Mark Levine said of the prospective bidders.

The latest lobbying disclosures, which cover January 2023 through April, are only the beginning as the application process is still months away from actually beginning.  “Once the applicant list is set and community advisory committees are in place, this will be extremely intense,” Levine predicted.