It was once thought to be a sure thing, a $1.2 billion gambling mecca that carried long-held hopes of revitalizing the Catskills, and more recent expectations of driving Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo’s upstate development program. But Resorts World Catskills, roughly 85 miles northwest of New York City, has lost money every quarter since it opened in February 2018, dragged into the red by a combination of underwhelming attendance and nine-figure loans, the New York Times reported. Last month, the largest stockholder of Empire Resorts, the company that operates the casino, argued that it should go private because it no longer believed it had “any reasonable prospect for becoming financially self-sustaining in the future.” The company’s most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission showed a $36 million loss in the second quarter of 2019, after a $37 million loss in the first three months. The company warned that it may seek bankruptcy protection if it does not secure financing. But Resorts World Catskills is far from alone in feeling the pain: All four of the state’s newest casinos have underperformed expectations, swamped by competition in an already-saturated gaming market. The same challenge has faced casinos across the country, as states attracted to the promise of tax revenues and jobs have engaged in a kind of brinkmanship that divides already-served markets into smaller and smaller pieces.
