Bally’s has a home for a potential downstate New York casino.
Now we know how much it reportedly cost the company.
As first reported by the New York Post, the deal to acquire the least at Trump Golf Links at Ferry Point will cost Bally’s at least $100 million.
Such is the (literal) price to pay to join the world of NY casinos.
Deal for Trump Golf Links could exceed $100 million
When reports emerged that Bally’s was finalizing a deal to take over the course controlled by former President Donald Trump’s organization, it was suggested that the price tag was “tens of millions of dollars.”
According to a report from the New York Post, Eric Trump, son of the 45th president, led the negotiation’s and landed in the $100 million range.
According to the Post, Eric “was bargaining up to the last minute with Bally’s for extra money.” They ultimately settled on the aforementioned price tag as the Trump team feared that “if the negotiations had gone on another week or so a deal might not have happened in time.”
Sources for the Post indicated that the final price of the deal depends on performance targets.
Bally’s saves time for NY casino location
The timing of the deal comes during a tumultuous time for the Trump Organization.
Just last week, New York Judge Anthony Engoron found the company liable for fraud. As a result, the judge aimed to cancel the organization’s business licenses.
The Trump Organization plans to appeal the judge’s ruling, but the company still stands to earn tens of millions of dollars from this Bally’s arrangement.
After all, Bally’s desperately needed a physical location for its proposed downstate NY casino site. (Which would be the first step in the eventual path towards operating a legal NY online casino, which will be the ultimate prize in the state.) In order to officially apply for downstate licensing, a bidding group needs to secure the rights to the land it wished to develop.
According to the Post, if Bally’s did not agree to this deal now, the process to come to another agreement to eventually have access to the golf course “could have taken months.”
