Mayor Adams says he isn’t following NYC on line casino bid course of after ex-top staffer indicators on to work with bidding firm

Mayor Adams mentioned Tuesday that he hasn’t been paying any consideration to the method that would convey three casinos to the New York metropolitan space — not lengthy after a former high adviser reportedly inked a cope with one of many corporations bidding for an working license.

Adams was requested at a Metropolis Corridor press convention whether or not he has any desire on which operators will get licenses to function casinos in New York State. In response, he mentioned he desires them within the metropolis, however has not “been following this in any respect.”

“I’ve not been following the on line casino dance, due to my understanding it’s the Gaming Fee that’s going to make the last word resolution,” he mentioned. “I simply suppose that we should always have it someplace right here within the metropolis. I’ve not been following this in any respect.”

Simply hours earlier than the press convention, Politico revealed that Adams’ former chief of workers, Frank Carone, inked a cope with Greenberg Traurig, the regulation agency representing business landlord SL Inexperienced in its bid to open a on line casino in Instances Sq. with Caesars Leisure and Jay-Z’s Roc Nation.

In an announcement to the information outlet, Carone mentioned he’ll assist to create “a diversified community-engagement hiring plan as a part of the proposal for a Instances Sq. gaming vacation spot.”

SL Inexperienced is one among a number of corporations vying to safe one among three state on line casino licenses that are actually up for grabs. Others proposals embody plans to construct casinos at long-vacant land close to the United Nations, at former President Donald Trump’s golf course within the Bronx and close to Citi Discipline in Queens.

Two of the three bids are anticipated to go to already-existing racinos now working close to Aqueduct in Queens and in Yonkers.

The information of Carone teaming up with SL Inexperienced comes months after the true property large sued Monetary Imaginative and prescient Group, a medical insurance funding enterprise co-founded by Carone. Within the lawsuit, SL Inexperienced claimed that Monetary Imaginative and prescient had not paid hire on a Twenty third-floor workplace in one among its buildings on Sixth Ave.

Final week, after a decide dominated that Monetary Imaginative and prescient ought to cough up $726,000 as a part of the case, Carone mentioned he had no authorized publicity within the matter.