On Thursday, Jan. 9, Coney Island locals gathered at the Coney Island YMCA to debate a transformative land use proposal. Overlapping voices reverberated around the packed gym. A crowd of people held signs high above their heads: “No Value. No Future. No Good.” Others milled about in white-and-blue t-shirts with the words “The Coney” emblazoned on the front in stylized lettering. Some people left because of the noise.
The proposal would transform five acres of the iconic boardwalk into a state-of-the-art casino complex called The Coney, which would include a hotel, a convention center and a music venue.
Most of the attendees bemoaned the potential side effects of a casino in the community. “The casino would be a complete abomination and the ruin of the entire Coney Island,” Adam Rinn, artistic director at Coney Island USA, told Spectrum News.
The pro-casino advocates among the crowd seemed excited by the business opportunities that come from such a massive tourist attraction. “Year-round foot traffic, people would be on Coney Island right now. The Coney Island area, there is no foot traffic,” Augustine Quiles, a Coney Island bar owner, told Spectrum.
In March 2023, the New York Gaming Commission announced that they would issue licenses for three downstate gaming facilities in late 2025, a process that began twelve years ago when voters approved a constitutional amendment allowing for the construction of up to seven casinos in the state. The announcement set in motion one of the largest real estate battles in decades.
Currently, 11 proposals are jockeying for one of the three coveted licenses — nine in New York City proper and two in the surrounding suburbs. Approval would mean near-exclusive access to a metropolitan area with 23.5 million residents and 62 million annual tourists — the largest in the U.S. For context, Las Vegas draws about 40 million tourists per year on top of its population of 660,000. For casino developers, the Big Apple gambling market is a prize well worth the $500 million upfront license fee and millions in media consulting fees.
Establishing a casino in New York City would potentially generate substantial revenue for the state government as well. According to the 2024 state budget, annual tax revenue from three New York City casinos would rake in $231 to $413 million per year, much of which would go toward funding the Metropolitan Transport Authority (MTA). According to a report from State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli, New York State collected $4.8 billion in taxes from upstate casinos and sports betting apps in fiscal year 2022-2023, 95% of which went to education.
Despite the boon to New York’s budget, residents across the city continue to resist casino proposals. A proposal for a $12 billion casino complex in Hudson Yards was shot down in a unanimous vote by Community Board 4 last Monday. A number of prominent advocates and organizations have spoken out against other proposals in Times Square and Willets Point, Queens. State Sen. Jessica Ramos refused to introduce legislation that would pave the way for a casino at Corona Park in Flushing Meadows, Queens.
There is only one proposed casino project for Brooklyn: The Coney. Backed by a quartet of multi-billion-dollar corporations — Thor Equities, Saratoga Casino Holdings, Legends and Chickasaw Nation —The Coney promises to “[fulfill] a generations-long promise to Coney Island by providing the region with a permanent, thriving local economic engine,” according to Thor Equities.
The developers will need community support for license approval, and they know it. Already, the developers vowed to contribute $200 million to a Coney Island community trust, a massive windfall that could be spent on boardwalk improvements, beautification efforts and more. Thor Equities, the primary team behind the bid, estimates that the new gaming facility would bring roughly 4,000 union jobs and generate year-round foot traffic to an area that relies almost entirely on summer tourism.
Yet many residents remain unconvinced, raising concerns from gentrification to congestion to predatory corporate influence in the community. “This casino would lead to gentrification and that is my main concern. I want my neighbors to stay here, I want to stay here,” Jeanny Hernandez, a Coney Island resident, told the Brooklyn Paper.
Others voiced concerns that the construction proposal would demolish much of the boardwalk’s iconic amusement park. Coney Island USA, a non-profit arts organization, wrote on its website that, “The Casino would remove almost half the rides and put the others at risk of disappearing. Soon the only rides left could be the Wonder Wheel and the Cyclone. Everything else could be gone.”
The Community Board 13 Land Use Committee will vote on the proposal on Wednesday, Jan. 15 before a full board vote on Jan. 22.
