SL Green Realty Corp., Manhattan’s largest office landlord, hoping to build a top-rated casino in Times Square called Caesars Palace Times Square., has submitted its bid for one of the open state license slots.
To hedge their bet, SL Green Realty and music mogul Jay-Z formally announced a partnership with civil rights activist and National Action Network (NAN) founder Rev. Al Sharpton, and global digital real estate investor Ryan Williams before the deadline on Friday, June 27.
The seemingly unlikely gaming partners, in what’s typically been a white-led industry, said they aim to increase Black and working-class representation, secure union jobs, and promote an inclusive community-level ownership model in the future.
“Caesars Palace Times Square has a broad and diverse coalition of support … because they recognize that this project will uplift hardworking communities across New York City through good-paying jobs and an unparalleled $250 million community benefits program,” said Garrett Armwood, head of government affairs at SL Green, in a statement. “Uniquely, this project will also give communities historically underrepresented within traditional casino ownership a seat at the table, and the opportunity to own the table full stop.”
The plan
SL Green intends to transform the office building at 1515 Broadway into a gargantuan 150,000 sq ft. casino with more than 3,000 slot machines, 190 tables, 13 private gaming salons; the Caesars Sportsbook at the 40/40 Club (a luxury sports bar and lounge concept, courtesy of Jay-Z), and a World Series of Poker room. The hotel portion will include 992 rooms, three destination restaurants, a wellness retreat, nightclubs, and a “family-friendly” SUMMIT One rooftop and park with skyviews.
“I’ve always been a believer that exceptional partnerships ultimately create long-term value,” said Williams. “What I believe I [bring to the table] is a platform that can actually bring the masses into the kind of investment that they’ve historically been boxed out from, and frankly, historically, have suffered from when you look at the impact of casinos and gaming in Black and Brown and working class communities around the country. My view was that this was a transformative, generational opportunity to change the paradigm.”
Williams, founder of Cadre, considers himself a “serial entrepreneur” and is passionate about community investment. Leveraging technology and his network, he has raised billions of dollars in capital and empowered underserved communities to build generational wealth. He has known Marc Holliday, SL Green’s chairperson and Chief executive officer, for about a decade, he said.
Williams said he’s not much of a gambler himself, but many of his family members are. He was motivated to help when he saw how “consumed” they could become in gaming without much return on their money. His idea is to allow everyday New Yorkers to invest directly in equity shares of the hotel and casino project, starting at $500. Over time, people would get profits from that equity sent back into their accounts, he said.
SL Green has promised a hefty $250 million toward community investments: $80 million for public safety, $20 million for Broadway tickets for economically disadvantaged families, $5 million for public health and affirming care for LGBTQ+ people, and $15 million to help create a civil rights museum spearheaded by Sharpton and the Civil Rights Foundation. Armwood said the community aspect of the proposal was the result of “hundreds and hundreds of meetings with community members,” as well as input from Jay-Z’s Roc Nation and Sharpton.
“We’re going to have three casinos in the state. There needs to be one that some of us that are not billionaires can invest in,” said Sharpton to a crowd of enthusiastic labor members from unions like the Laborers’ International Union of North America (LIUNA), Mason Tenders, Actors Equity and Local 802, Local 79 Theater, 32BJ SEIU, and Hotel Trades & Gaming Council, that were at a rally in Times Square on June 26.
Sharpton said he supported Jay-Z in his Barclay’s Center venture and is firmly committed to also seeing him become the first Black man in the city’s history to own a casino. As an aside, Sharpton had once been guaranteed a new NAN headquarters and civil rights museum at the One45 development site on 145th Street in Harlem. Planning is still ongoing for that development, but the office and museum idea have since been nixed.
“I am proud to support Caesars Palace Times Square because I understand how it will benefit New Yorkers across the city and create opportunity for all of our communities,” said Assemblymember Jordan Wright. “My constituents wake up every day facing an affordability crisis that threatens to push them out of the city they’ve called home for generations. This project will face that crisis head-on — it’s a lifeline for working-class New Yorkers that will provide thousands of good-paying union jobs and bring in new revenue and long-term economic stability for working people — not just in Midtown, but in every borough.”
Gaming in general, gambling, the lottery, and sports wagering have been a burgeoning industry for New York State since former Governor Andrew Cuomo — an Independent mayoral candidate this year — signed the Upstate New York Gaming Economic Development Act of 2013. The act stipulated that at least seven years had to pass before bidding wars to build a casino in New York City could begin. In 2023, bidders floated eight proposals for three open sites in the boroughs. Every company paid a $1 million fee to the New York State Gaming Commission to submit their final proposals last week.
However, New York City has a long, at times sordid and racially fraught, history with gambling.
Harlem’s infamous gambling racket
In the 1920s and ’30s, Harlem dominated the highly profitable numbers racket, which was essentially the illegal lottery at the time. It was a game of chance “for the culture” that appealed to communities of all socioeconomic backgrounds and became a global phenomenon, despite its criminal element and juxtaposition to mob activity. Anyone could be a numbers runner or “hit the number” if they played often enough.
“It was a cultural pastime,” said LaShawn Harris, an associate professor of history at Michigan State University. “People who played were … working class, poor people, And then there were people who didn’t necessarily need money, like middle class professionals who played [it] as a kind of fun, harmless type of game.”
Harris literally wrote the book about Madame Stephanie St. Clair, one of the few Black women “bankers” in the numbers racket that flourished during that time. She also wrote “Tell Her Story: Eleanor Bumpurs & The Police Killing that Galvanized New York City” and “Sex Workers, Psychics & Numbers Runners.”
Harris, who is a Harlem and Bronx native, remembers her grandparents being engrossed in the church but also “playing numbers,” which was why she was drawn to recording St. Clair’s story as the “Numbers Queen.” “For a Black, immigrant woman to be out there calling out the police, calling out white gangsters … in Jim Crow North, she’s kinda like stepping out of her place. Just an ideal historical figure,” said Harris.
Although it was popular, gambling had plenty of Black opposition. Some reformers and church-going people saw the numbers racket as an illegal and corrupt game. There was also the issue of overt police corruption among white officers who ran the racket in Black neighborhoods, which often led to arrests among Black bankers, runners, and bettors while high-level white “controllers,” or owners, and mob bosses involved escaped the law, according to Amsterdam News archives.
New York State didn’t move to crack down unilaterally on the numbers game until the 1950s and ’60s, and finally created a legal version in 1980. The economic control that Black bankers had in gambling in the city was phased out, despite protests from some Black electeds that they should be hired by the state. The cultural habit of playing numbers and betting remained.
The negatives
According to a gambling prevalence survey, conducted in 2020 by the state’s Office of Addiction Services and Supports (OASAS), specific demographics in Black and Asian communities are most vulnerable to gambling harms. This includes 18- to 24-year-olds, Black men, those with a substance use disorder, those with a high school diploma or less, and those with an income below $30,000 a year. Other groups, like veterans, the elderly, Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders, Indigenous people, and people of color, were also considered high-risk populations.
Armwood said Caesars Entertainment is a pioneer in problem gambling services. It has instituted the industry’s first self-exclusion policy, toll-free helpline, and responsible gaming Ambassador program. He promised there will be no street-level gaming, meaning people will have to enter, go upstairs, and clear security before they can gamble.
“In addition to Caesars’ industry-leading practices across all facilities for problem gambling, Caesars Palace Times Square will implement new policies that are site-specific to New York City in response to the New York Council on Problem Gambling’s recent recommendations. including a street level outreach program, education and training for customers and employees, treatment programs, and an advertising and awareness campaign,” Armwood said in a statement.
Beyond the possibility of gambling addiction, some in the Black community still perceive the activity to be immoral and an unnecessary financial risk.
“I think it’s a fair pushback,” said Williams, who attends church in Harlem. “There’s definitely a stigma associated with gambling and I respect that there will always be a segment of our community that have real moral concerns about it. I think the right approach is, you take them serious, and you build a strategy around them transparently where you can prioritize it in a responsible way.”
Williams said the team is definitely talking with faith-based leaders, community organizations, and local stakeholders to mitigate ethical concerns. “Because we know our community, at the end of the day, might suffer because there are so many long-standing issues that we had with these kinds of models, so again engagement — that’s the name of the game for us [along with] transparency and accountability,” said Williams.
Harris thinks the Times Square casino could definitely attract good union jobs, but is hesitant about the capitalist aspect not benefiting the community. She hopes that real safeguards will be in place to protect those most vulnerable and that Caesars Entertainment follows through on its promises. “I’m hopeful it’s not a trickle-down — we know that historically wealth doesn’t trickle down,” Harris said.
The public comment period will continue through this September, after which the community advisory committee (current governor, mayor, senator, assemblymember, borough president, and councilmember for the location of the project) will vote. The state’s gaming commission is expected to make a final decision by December.
“The commission is committed to ensuring responsible play in all communities across all gaming platforms, and regularly collaborates with the New York State Office of Addiction Services and Supports (OASAS) and the New York Council on Problem Gambling as part of the Responsible Play Partnership (RPP),” said Brad Maione of the gaming commission. “All commercial casino applicants must put forth a project-specific responsible gambling plan as part of their application. These plans will be reviewed in consultation with the RPP.”
Other proposed casinos, as on Coney Island’s boardwalk in Brooklyn, have received immense pushback and simultaneous support from community stakeholders and electeds.