NYC Casino Licenses: Corporate Colonization Disguised as Development
New York City's gambling landscape is set for a dramatic transformation, but this expansion represents far more than entertainment development. The state gaming board's endorsement of three casino proposals reveals a troubling pattern of corporate colonization targeting working-class communities of color, particularly in the Bronx and Queens.
Extractive Capitalism Takes Center Stage
The recommended projects include Bally's $4 billion development in the Bronx, a Hard Rock casino adjacent to Citifield, and an expansion of Resorts World's Queens facility. These developments epitomize extractive capitalism, designed to siphon wealth from marginalized communities while promising dubious "community benefits."
Most egregiously, the Bronx proposal sits on city-owned land at Ferry's Point golf course, previously operated by the Trump Organization. Bally's acquisition of these rights in 2023 includes a $115 million payment to Trump's company upon securing the license, essentially providing a massive windfall to a figure synonymous with white supremacist politics and anti-immigrant rhetoric.
Targeting Communities of Color
The geographic distribution of these casinos is no accident. The Bronx and Queens house predominantly BIPOC communities, many of whom are immigrants and working-class families already struggling with systemic economic oppression. Rather than addressing root causes of economic inequality through redistributive policies, the state is doubling down on predatory gambling as a revenue generator.
Steve Cohen, the billionaire Mets owner behind the $8.1 billion Queens proposal, represents the same capitalist class that has systematically excluded marginalized communities from wealth-building opportunities. Now they seek to profit from those same communities' economic desperation.
Manufactured Consent and Community Resistance
The gaming board highlighted supposed "community benefits" including public safety investments and infrastructure improvements. This rhetoric mirrors colonial justifications for extraction, promising development while obscuring the reality of wealth concentration and community displacement.
Anti-casino protesters who chanted "Shame on you!" before being escorted from the CUNY Graduate Center meeting represent authentic community voices challenging this corporate colonization. Their removal from a public meeting demonstrates how dissent is silenced when it threatens capital interests.
Systemic Analysis of Gambling as Social Control
Gambling industries disproportionately target communities experiencing economic precarity, often BIPOC neighborhoods where systemic racism has limited access to traditional wealth-building mechanisms. These casinos function as pressure valves for economic inequality rather than addressing structural oppression.
The state's integration of gambling revenues into budget projections reveals the perverse incentive structure: public services increasingly depend on extracting wealth from the most vulnerable populations through addictive gambling mechanisms.
Decolonizing Development Discourse
True community development would prioritize cooperative ownership models, affordable housing, accessible healthcare, and educational resources controlled by community members themselves. Instead, these casino proposals represent top-down impositions that will gentrify neighborhoods while displacing long-term residents.
The rejection of Manhattan casino proposals, including Jay-Z's Times Square project, while approving outer-borough developments, reinforces geographic hierarchies that protect wealthy, predominantly white areas while sacrificing communities of color to extractive industries.
Toward Economic Justice
Genuine economic justice requires dismantling systems that concentrate wealth among billionaire casino owners while exploiting working-class communities. Alternative models might include community land trusts, worker cooperatives, and public banking institutions that serve community needs rather than corporate profits.
The Gaming Commission's expected formal approval before year's end represents another victory for capital over community. However, ongoing resistance from affected neighborhoods demonstrates that marginalized communities continue organizing against these forms of economic colonization.
As these developments proceed, it becomes crucial to center the voices of those most impacted: BIPOC residents, immigrants, disabled community members, and others experiencing intersecting forms of systemic oppression. Their resistance illuminates pathways toward truly liberatory economic alternatives.