The company has been aggressively expanding along the coast over the past two years. The Yonkers property would become MGM’s fourth on the East Coast when the deal is completed in the first quarter of 2019. MGM already offers online poker in New Jersey and mobile sports wagering in Nevada.Ĭhris Connelly, who runs the Contrarian Investments sports wagering fund, said MGM’s mobile sports betting platform offers attractive lines and accepts larger wages than its peers. New York could generate as much as $1.2 billion in sports betting revenue annually if the tax rate were below 10 percent and gamblers had access to mobile as well as brick-and-mortar locations, according to a 2017 report by Oxford Economics.

The Yonkers property serves approximately 16 million eligible gaming customers in southern New York, according to a statement Tuesday from MGM Resorts.

“MGM’s purchase signals a certain confidence that online poker and sports betting will move forward in New York,” said Chris Grove, managing director of sports and emerging verticals for Eilers & Krejcik Gaming, a California-based research firm. The bill would likely legalize sports betting at racetracks, off-track betting facilities, state and Native American casinos and on mobile devices, McGill said. The Supreme Court this month overturned a law banning states from legalizing wagers on single sporting events, opening the door to Las Vegas operators to run sports books at racetracks and casinos around the country.īrian McGill, a gaming analyst for Telsey Advisory Group, said Tuesday in a note to clients that New York state lawmakers are pushing to get a bill passed before the legislative session adjourns June 20.

It could soon offer sports betting, a potential game-changer for the property. The Las Vegas casino operator is teaming up with its real estate arm - MGM Growth Properties - to buy a casino just over the New York City border for $850 million.Įmpire City Casino, located 15 miles north of Times Square in Yonkers, offers 5,200 slots and electronic table games as well as live and simulcast horse racing.

MGM Resorts International is taking a bite out of the Big Apple’s gambling pie. MGM Resorts International CEO James Murren (Elizabeth Brumley/Las Vegas Review-Journall)

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