The City Council vote all but dooms the company’s chances of obtaining one of up to three casino licenses that New York State is expected to award this year.
The field of competitors for up to three new casino licenses that New York State officials expect to award by year’s end appeared to shrink this week after the New York City Council rejected zoning changes essential to one applicant’s proposal.
The Council, following a tradition of abiding by local members’ wishes on land-use matters, voted overwhelmingly on Monday against the rezoning, which the gambling company Bally’s would have needed to proceed with its plans for a casino in the East Bronx.
The vote was an example of the sway individual council members hold over development in their districts under what is known as “member deference,” an unofficial veto power that critics say has, among other things, worsened the city’s housing shortage.
With Bally’s now apparently out of the running, the number of applicants vying for the potentially lucrative licenses to operate full-fledged casinos in and around the city has most likely been winnowed to seven.
The five remaining city-based contenders — one in Queens, another in Brooklyn and three in Manhattan — have either secured the zoning changes they need from the Council or have proposed plans that would not require site-specific changes. (Existing “racinos” — horse-racing tracks with slot machines — in Yonkers and Queens have also applied for the licenses.)
The 28-9 vote against the rezoning for the Bally’s project came on a motion by Kristy Marmorato, the councilwoman who represents the area where the casino would be built and who, in a news release after the vote, characterized it as “predatory development.”
