Bloomberg: Casinos are Bad Bets for Cities, Including New York
Posted on: January 5, 2026, 09:44h.
Last updated on: January 5, 2026, 09:59h.
- Bloomberg’s op-ed team believes New York is making a bad bet on downstate casinos
- The editorial opines that casinos don’t deliver on their economic promises
The Bloomberg Editorial Board is speaking out against the forthcoming arrival of full-scale casino resorts in New York City.
Last month, the New York Gaming Facility Location Board and New York State Gaming Commission approved the development of three Las Vegas-like casino destinations in downstate New York. Two are earmarked for Queens, and the third will be in the Bronx.
The Bloomberg Editorial Board, a group of nine journalists who weigh in on a range of national and global affairs, believes Bally’s Bronx at Ferry Point Park, Hard Rock Metropolitan Park at Willets Point, and Resorts World New York City at the Queens Aqueduct Racetrack will be a losing bet for the downstate region. The opinion piece claims that casinos often fail to deliver their promised economic benefits and ultimately hurt local businesses in the surrounding areas.
Unlike other entertainment options, moreover, casinos impose outsized costs on nongamblers. They tend to increase crime, an effect that worsens over time. They’re likely to boost bankruptcy rates. Because they’re reliant on problem or at-risk gamblers for up to 90% of their revenue, they’re associated with a host of other public expenses, including for courts, emergency services, unemployment, bad debts, and more. By one analysis, the social costs of casinos exceed the economic benefits by a factor of six,” the Editorial Board wrote.
Bloomberg is an American, privately held financial, software, data, and media company headquartered in Midtown Manhattan. Billionaire Michael Bloomberg owns about 88% of the organization.
Casino Setbacks
The Bloomberg op-ed team, led by Senior Executive Editor Timothy O’Brien, a former editor and reporter for the New York Times, argues that casinos “tend to redirect spending” from local businesses and services. The opinion team additionally claims that casinos don’t expand productive capacity or induce much in the way of innovation.
“Casinos are by design self-contained and thus unlikely to benefit neighboring businesses. On balance, research finds they provide little or no long-term boost to retail sales, growth, jobs, or wages,” the op-ed continued.
The three casinos say otherwise. During the bidding process, each project committed to generating thousands of full-time jobs with strong pay. They also made an array of community benefit pledges, like infrastructure upgrades and public parks.
The Gaming Facility Location Board projects that the three casinos will deliver $7 billion in incremental tax revenue between 2027 and 2036, plus $1.5 billion in immediate upfront licensing fees. The tax money will benefit the MTA, education, Queens and the Bronx, and the surrounding counties, the Board says.
Freedom of Choice
It’s been many years since casinos were largely limited to Nevada, Atlantic City, and tribal reservations. Today, 43 states have commercial or tribal casinos.
Casinos are more popular than ever, with an estimated 134 million Americans visiting one at least once in the past year. The Bloomberg writers acknowledge that Americans have the right to choose whether to gamble.
“Plainly, American voters think casinos are worth these risks, and such is life in a democracy,” they concluded.
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