New York's casino sweepstakes could put $115M in Donald Trump's pocket
The Republican stands to win big if state officials award one of three available gaming licenses to Bally's Corp., which wants to open a casino at a city-owned golf course that used to be run by Trump's company.
In 2023, Bally's paid Trump $60 million for the rights to operate the public 18-hole course on the Bronx shoreline, near where the East River meets the Long Island Sound.
The gaming company promptly took down the massive 'Trump Links' sign that was, at one time, all but impossible to miss for drivers going the Whitestone Bridge, and renamed the course Bally's Golf Links at Ferry Point.
But under a little-noticed side deal, Bally's promised to pay Trump another $115 million if Bally's were to get a license to open a casino on site.
The letter disclosing that deal was included as an evidence exhibit in a trial over New York state's allegation that Trump habitually lied about the worth of his assets in financial statements given to banks. The letter says the $115 million payment would be nonrefundable and describes it as a 'gaming event fee.'
Bally's did not return requests for comment.
Trump's interest in Bally's project could be a wildcard in New York's casino sweepstakes.
At least 11 bidders have said they are competing for the right to build what would be the first, full-service casino in the city and its nearest suburbs.
The race has drawn in big players: Caesars Palace has a plan to build a casino in Times Square; the company that owns Saks Fifth Avenue wants to put a casino atop their luxury department store in Manhattan; and Steve Cohen, the owner of the New York Mets, is proposing a casino right outside the baseball team's home stadium in Queens.
Another two bidders are hoping to expand on existing operations. MGM Resorts wants to do a major upgrade of its existing Empire City 'racino,' located at a horse track in the suburb of Yonkers. The gaming company Genting wants to do a multibillion expansion of its Resorts World racino adjacent to the Aqueduct horse track in Queens. Those two gambling venues are now limited by law to slot machines and certain other machine-run games.
It is unclear how Trump's link to one of the bidders might affect the selection process.
Applications are supposed to be submitted to a state board by late June. First, they will be considered by community advisory committees made up of appointees of the governor, mayor and state and local officials. Their job will be to weigh any local support or opposition. The proposals then go back to the state's gaming board, which expects to award the licenses by the end of the year.
Applicants also have to get various zoning or land-use approvals depending on the location and scope of their projects. Bally's project is also expected to require the state Legislature to pass a bill allowing the company to build their casino on public parkland.
The federal government does not play any role in the state's casino license selection process. The Trump Organization did not immediately return an emailed request for comment.
Trump remains highly unpopular among many public officials in New York who will be in a position to influence the process, and it is possible that antipathy could wind up being a handicap for Bally's bid.
There's also a chance someone might try to use Trump's financial interest as a bargaining chip.
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul has clashed with the Trump administration over immigration policy, federal funding for the city's subway system and a tolling program in Manhattan. The Trump administration is also trying to revive a plan to build a natural gas pipeline through New York that was halted in 2017 by state environmental regulators.
New York City Mayor Eric Adams, meanwhile, has been under intense pressure to prove his political independence after the Justice Department moved to drop his corruption case so he could assist with the Trump administration's immigration agenda.
Trump, whose Trump Organization runs more than a dozen golf courses around the world, first acquired the rights to manage Ferry Point in 2012.
The city spent more than $120 million to build the Jack Nicklaus-designed course on an old landfill, envisioning an East Coast version of the famed Pebble Beach links in California and major championships that never materialized.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
NBC News
26 minutes ago
- NBC News
U.S. trans woman challenges Dutch asylum rejection
AMSTERDAM — A 28-year-old transgender woman from the U.S. began a legal challenge on Wednesday to the rejection of her asylum application in the Netherlands where she had sought political asylum saying she no longer felt safe in the United States. Veronica Clifford-Carlos, a visual artist from California, came to the Netherlands — the first country to legalize same-sex marriage and known for its strong protections of LGBTQ rights — because the Trump administration's policies towards transgender people made her feel unsafe, her lawyer's office said. The case, the first of its kind in the Netherlands, will be heard in a court in Amsterdam starting Wednesday, with a ruling expected in four to six weeks. Since taking office in January, President Donald Trump has issued executive orders limiting transgender rights, banned transgender people from serving in the armed forces, and rescinded anti-discrimination policies for LGBTQ people. Dutch advocacy group LGBT Asylum Support, which backs the lawsuit, is currently assisting around 20 U.S. trans individuals with pending asylum claims. According to data from the Immigration and Naturalisation Service (IND), 29 Americans applied for asylum in the Netherlands during the first half of this year. In previous years there were between nine and 18 applicants per year, an IND spokesperson said. 'The IND generally states that discrimination by authorities and fellow citizens can be considered an act of persecution if it is so severe that victims can no longer function socially and societally,' LGBT Asylum Support said in a statement. 'But the IND maintains that there are no grounds for exceptional treatment of transgender and queer refugees from the U.S.'
The Hill
27 minutes ago
- The Hill
Almost 6 in 10 say UN members should recognize Palestinian state: Survey
Nearly 6 in 10 Americans said that the United Nations (U.N.) countries should recognize the Palestinian state, according to a new survey that was published on Wednesday morning. The new Reuters/Ipsos poll found that 58 percent of U.S. adults think that every country in the U.N. should recognize Palestine as a nation. About a third of respondents, 33 percent, disagreed, while another 9 percent didn't answer when asked. The survey comes as the United Kingdom, France and Canada — all close U.S. allies — have recently expressed their intentions to recognize the Palestinian state. In late July, when asked about UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer's intention, President Trump said he had 'no view on that.' The president said French President Emmanuel Macron's decision was not 'going to change anything.' The decisions from all three nations come as Israel is facing international pressure over the humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip, with starvation spreading and some aid organizations warning that Palestinians are on the brink of famine. Israel has denied the accusation of facilitating the growing hunger in the war-torn enclave, stating that the Palestinian militant group Hamas is stealing humanitarian aid. Hamas, designated as a foreign terrorist organization by the U.S., has denied the accusation by Israel. The majority of Americans in the survey, 65 percent, said that the Trump administration should spring into action to aid Palestinians when it comes to food delivery. About 28 percent disagreed, including 41 percent of Trump-aligned GOP voters. Nearly 6 in 10 Americans, 59 percent, argued that the Israeli military's actions in Gaza, which kicked off following Hamas's Oct. 7, 2023, attack on southern Israel, have been excessive. About a third, 33 percent, disagreed, according to the poll. In February last year, 53 percent of Americans said Israeli military response in the enclave was excessive, while 42 percent said otherwise. The survey was conducted from Aug. 13-18 among 4,446 U.S. adults. The margin of error was around 2 percentage points.
The Hill
27 minutes ago
- The Hill
An Italian funeral for a Palestinian woman evacuated from Gaza becomes a call to ‘make noise'
PONTASSERCHIO, Italy (AP) — Funeral services were held Wednesday for a young Palestinian woman who died in Italy shortly after being evacuated from Gaza last week, exposing Italians to the desperate plight of Palestinians in the besieged territory. The funeral of Marah Abu Zuhri, attended by several hundred people, was interrupted repeatedly by chants of 'Free Palestine' and featured speeches by local authorities denouncing Israel's policy in Gaza and expressing solidarity with the Palestinian people. As Palestinian flags fluttered, mourners stood in prayer before Zuhri's coffin, which was was draped in a Palestinian flag and a keffiyeh scarf in the town of Pontasserchio, near Pisa. Zuhri, 19, had been evacuated to Italy with what Israel had called leukemia, but Italian doctors said they found no initial evidence of that and instead found 'profound wasting' and an undiagnosed or misdiagnosed condition. The United Nations and partners have said 22 months of war have devastated Gaza's health system, and food security experts have said the 'worst-case scenario of famine is currently playing out.' Israel is moving ahead with a new military offensive on some of the territory's most populated areas, Mayor Matteo Cecchelli said he wanted to honor Zuhri's life with a public service in the town's Park of Peace, to 'make noise' about what he called a political and humanitarian 'catastrophe' in Gaza. 'The reality is that every day in the Gaza Strip, people are dying in the deafening silence of world governments,' he said to applause. 'We cannot remain silent today in this field of peace. There are those who have decided to make noise and have decided to be here to express their dissent towards this genocide.' Israel asserts that it abides by international law and is fighting an existential war in Gaza after Hamas' deadly Oct. 7, 2023, attack that killed some 1,200 people and took more than 250 others hostage. Israel has rejected genocide allegations related to its war in Gaza and called them antisemitic. Zuhri arrived in Italy overnight on Aug. 13-14 as one of 31 sick or injured Palestinians evacuated on an Italian humanitarian airlift that has brought nearly 1,000 ill Palestinians and their families to the country since the war began. Israel said she had leukemia and had been offered an evacuation earlier but claimed that Hamas had exploited her case, without offering evidence. The U.N. World Health Organization, which coordinates patients' evacuations, didn't respond to a request for comment. Gaza's Health Ministry has asserted that evacuations are often delayed or canceled by Israeli authorities. It says over 18,000 patients and wounded require treatment outside Gaza. Zuhri was admitted to the hematology ward of Pisa University's Santa Chiara Hospital, a known oncological hospital in Tuscany, but died there on Aug. 15. The hospital said she arrived with a 'very complex/compromised clinical picture and in a state of profound wasting.' She suffered a sudden respiratory crisis and subsequent cardiac arrest, which killed her, it said. The head of the hematology department at the Pisa hospital, Dr. Sara Galimberti, said Zuhri arrived with a diagnosis of suspected acute leukemia, but tests the hospital conducted came back negative, with no signs of the 'bad cells' that would indicate leukemia. Galimberti told reporters that Zuhri likely had been misdiagnosed, and that her condition was nevertheless seriously compromised and had been for a while. 'The patient was in a complete condition of wasting, and completely bedridden despite being 19 years old,' she said. The hospital conducted a nutritional consultation and began a hypercaloric therapy and transfusional support, but Zuhri died before a full diagnosis was possible, Galimberti said. The doctor said the woman's mother, Nabeela Abu Zuhri, declined an autopsy on religious and personal grounds. The mother, who accompanied her daughter on the flight, spoke briefly at the funeral, thanking Italy for trying to save her daughter and asking for prayers for Palestinians. She said she was 'leaving a part of my heart, a part of me, with you' before returning to Gaza. The imam of Pisa, Mohammad Khalil, who translated for her, tried to calm the crowd and focus on Zuhri, but he also spoke of food shortages and hunger in Gaza. The United Nations has said starvation and malnutrition in Gaza are at their highest levels since the war began. The U.N. says nearly 12,000 children under 5 were found with acute malnutrition in July — including more than 2,500 with severe malnutrition, the most dangerous level. The World Health Organization says the numbers are likely an undercount. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has repeatedly asserted that no one in Gaza is starving, with 'no policy of starvation in Gaza.' AP reporting has found that malnourished children were arriving daily at a Gaza hospital, with some dying from hunger, including ones with no preexisting conditions.
