Catskills Risks Opening Up a $900 Million Casino and Hotel

It’s been ages since the Catskills officials have had their hopes on a revival. And now finally, their wait might be over. On Thursday, a ribbon-cutting ceremony marked the start of a massive $900 million casino and hotel project on Concord Hotel grounds, near Monticello.

The casino is situated IN the Town of Thompson (Sullivan County). According to the location’s supervisor, William Rieber, they were done being a “has-been” and were ready to take on the famed resort industry.

The ‘Resorts World Catskills’ is looking to host over a hundred table games and more than two thousand slot machines in addition to ten unique bars and restaurants. This is the among the few nontribal casinos that had received a license approval from the state back in 2014.

Aqueduct’s “racinos”, located in Queens, is also under the ownership of Resorts World. Both Yonkers’ Empire City and the “racinos” only offer video poker and slot machines. According to Reiber, this new casino resort has the potential of becoming an attractive holiday alternative for long-distance as well as short-distance travel. Reiber was a young boy of 8 years when he moved to this area with his family and is quite familiar with its workings.

This upcoming venture will be a complete departure from the old location, known for its classic vintage comedians in the former days. The place was later memorialized by Jennifer Grey and Patrick Swayze in the popular “Dirty Dancing” movie.

Even then, the opening of the Resorts World comes at a time when the casino and hotel industry is facing multiple crisis. The existing commercial casinos of New York are reporting very poor revenues and there is aggressive competition to attract gamblers.

The Investors Service of Moody recently reduced the Del Lago Resort Casino’s debt, citing poor earnings as the primary reason. In its January report, it cautioned that the Resorts World Casino could further end up saturating the gaming market.

While acknowledging the challenges, officials from Resorts World said that they were confident about their “all-inclusive resort concept” and their closeness to NYC. These factors would definitely make them more attractive to the customers. The Empire Resort’s CEO, Ryan Eller announced that their strategy was fundamentally different. He said that the hotel and casino will be the foundation of a massive development project, which after completion, would also include a waterpark, a lavish golf course, an entertainment village and additional hotels.