On July 30, 2025, Mayor Eric Adams vetoed the City Council’s disapproval of the land use application for a bid to build a casino and entertainment complex at the current Bally’s Golf Links site at Ferry Point in the Bronx.
In 2013, the state’s constitution was amended to allow for up to seven commercial casinos statewide. Commercial casinos are separate from Native American casinos and do not include a race track. Four casinos have already been created, leaving three licenses available for the Downstate region, including New York City, Long Island, and Westchester, Rockland, and Putnam Counties. Multiple proposals have been created for casino sites across the region, including the Bally’s proposal, which is the only casino proposal located within the Bronx.
Mayor Adams’ veto is not an overall approval for the Bally’s Casino project, but an effort to keep the bid alive to move onto the next stage of the process. Before a casino license can be issued by the state’s Gaming Facility Location Board, the applicants must receive approval from a local Community Advisory Committee in addition to overcoming any zoning issues. For New York City bids, the committee consists of the Governor, the Mayor, and the applicable State Senator, Assemblymember, Borough President, and City Council Member. In this case, the committee would include Bronx Borough President Vanessa Gibson, City Council Member Kristy Marmorato, State Assemblymember Michael Benedetto, and State Senator Nathalia Fernandez.
The Bally’s project first required zoning changes before it could move on to the Community Advisory Committee. The application included a city map amendment, a zoning map amendment, and a disposition of city-owned property in order to create the proposed mixed use development, which would include a 390,000 square foot casino, a 500-room hotel, an event center, retail space, a rooftop bar and restaurant, a parking facility with over 4,600 spaces, a replacement clubhouse, and a 2,000 square foot police substation. The applicants had also previously committed to improving parks of Ferry Point Park, including a new playground, landscaping, and a soccer field reconstruction. The project was also estimated to bring several thousand jobs to the Bronx, but still received much criticism from local residents who did not want a casino in their neighborhood.
On July 14th, the City Council voted to disapprove the land use application by 28 to 9. Under the long standing principle of member deference, the Council Member of the district containing the application site has significant say on whether the application gets approved. Council Member Marmorato had previously been very critical of the project following outcry from the local community. The Council’s vote had not been an outright rejection of casinos within city limits – in contrast, last month, the City Council voted to approve a similar land use application for a proposed casino and entertainment complex on Coney Island.
Following the Council’s vote, both Bronx Borough President Gibson and Assembymember Benedetto spoke out about the possibility of jobs and economic improvements the Bally’s project could bring to the Bronx. Borough President Gibson had stated on social media, “Let’s be very clear, projects such as the Bally’s casino at Ferry Point proposal will have a Borough wide impact beyond the community it would be housed in. When you think about $642M of investments that the Bronx may get, it’s worth the opportunity to allow the Bronx a chance to be a part of this process. Instead, the City Council’s decision has excluded the Bronx due to the same NIMBY mindset that we have witnessed time and time again.”
Assemblymember Benedetto criticized the Council vote on social media, stating “From what I’ve heard, some Council Members were absent, others confused, and a few from outside our Borough used this vote to aid a competing bid. That’s not how government should work. I stand by my words: this process was an embarrassment.” He had also encouraged Mayor Adams to veto the decision.
Mayor Adams shared a similar view regarding the potential economic impacts of the project. Following his veto of the Council’s decision, Mayor Adams released the following statement: “A casino in New York City would bring good-paying union jobs and an economic boost to the surrounding community, which is why I have long advocated for a fair process with as many competitive bids as possible. In stark contrast, the City Council’s disapproval of the Bally’s Bronx bid deprives the Bronx of the ability to even compete for a $4 billion private investment that would deliver 15,000 union construction jobs, 4,000 permanent union jobs, and more than $625 million in community benefits — including millions in funding for schools, parks, youth programs, nonprofits, and public safety — if selected by the state. The City Council’s decision to treat the Bronx differently than other boroughs goes against the publicly stated, in-favor positions of the Bronx borough president and other councilmembers representing working-class neighborhoods across the Bronx. By rejecting the land use application for this casino bid while approving three others in Manhattan, Queens, and Brooklyn, the City Council is putting its finger on the scale — and this is precisely the type of action that leads New Yorkers to lose faith in their elected leaders. . . To make myself abundantly clear, this is not an endorsement or expression of support giving a leg up to any casino bid over the others as the City Council has tried to do, but an action I feel is necessary to best ensure a fair and competitive process. May the best applications win.”
The veto arrives at the same time that the Mayor-appointed Charter Revision Commission’s recently released final report criticized the practice of member deference for its use in killing housing development. One of the Commission’s proposed ballot measures for November is a new appeals board consisting of the Mayor, the Council Speaker, and an appointed borough representative that could override the Council’s decision for approving or rejecting a development plan if two of the three members agree.
Following the veto announcement, Council Member Marmorato stated, “This veto is nothing short of an insult to the residents of District 13. Let me be perfectly clear: I stand firmly with my constituents, and no one – not even other Bronx representatives – will come into our district and force something on us that we do not want. At a time when we are fighting to preserve member deference – the long-standing principle that the councilmember who represents a district has a decisive say in land use matters – the mayor’s attempt to remove all Council authority and override the voices of our local communities is sickening. This action undermines the very foundation of local representation and silences the people of District 13 who made their voices heard loud and clear.”
The Council would need a two-thirds majority to override Mayor Adams’ veto.
By: Veronica Rose (Veronica is the Editor of CityLand and a New York Law School graduate, Class of 2018.)