[toc]The first of four new casino resorts in New York has an opening date.
Last week the Del Lago Casino announced it will open the doors to the Finger Lakes property on Feb. 1 of next year.
The property is in the town of Tyre, NY, which is roughly an hour east of Rochester and an hour west of Syracuse. The casino cost $40 million to build.
Casino and hotel will have staggered opening
Del Lago will feature an entertainment complex, multiple restaurants, over 2,000 slot machines, and nearly 100 table games.
One of the restaurants will be Portico, a restaurant concept by Top Chef alum Fabio Viviani. The casino will also feature a Mackenzie-Childs high-end home furnishings store.
The casino will open in February, but the associated hotel will not be completed by then and will open in the summer.
NY commercial casinos set to be regional game-changer
Back in 2013 Gov. Andrew Cuomo helped champion a measure to allow up to seven commercial casinos in the state.
In December of 2015 the state of New York Gaming Commission issued three commercial casino licenses for future properties in Tyre, the Seneca area, and Synechdoche.
It also granted a license for racetrack and gaming parlor Tioga Downs to expand its Southern Tier facilities.
The Del Lago’s competition is moving towards opening day as well.
The Montreign Casino Resort in the Catskills is making great progress but does not yet have an opening date. The Rivers Casino and Resort in Synechdoche began hiring employees in the fall for an early 2017 openings, but so far no formal opening date has been announced.
Existing gambling facilities in New York
The new casinos in New York are a big step for the state, but not the first gambling outfits in the state. These properties are the first to gain a commercial gambling license from New York.
They will also compete with 11 Native American gaming properties and nine slots parlors affiliated with regional racetracks.
Tioga Downs in Nichols, NY is a currently operational slots parlor. In August of this year the state granted the property the fourth commercial casino license. The property is currently accepting applications for new employees to work when the expansion is complete.
Del Lago will have to compete with Turning Stone Casino. The Native American property is roughly 90 miles from the new casino.
The Finger Lakes Gaming and Race Track is also in the Rochester area and will be a nearby competitor.
The state of New York has high hopes about potential gambling tax revenue. The Las Vegas Review-Journal recently reported New York is expected to surpass Nevada’s annual gaming tax revenue.
The state is expected to surpass $900 million in revenue. That number is expected to grow once Del Lago and the other new commercial casinos open their doors in 2017.