Genting’s bid to dominate the downstate casino game
Dana Rubinstein
KT Lim, the Malaysian casino magnate who sits at the pinnacle of a global gambling and palm oil empire now valued at $37 billion, is nothing if not adaptable.
Barred in the near term from turning his slot parlor at the Aqueduct racetrack into a full-scale casino, Lim, who chairs the company that controls Aqueduct, is making plays for two new casino licenses upstate, including one in Orange County, the state-sanctioned location that’s closest to New York City.
If successful, Lim stands to not only reap substantial revenue from upstate casinos but also, just maybe, to protect his existing investment in Queens from nearby competition.
In a saturated Northeast gambling market in which interstate cannibalization is an explicit rationale for New York legalization, the key to success for Genting and Lim is to “redistribute the demand to themselves,” said Gerald Benjamin, a political science professor at the State University of New York at New Paltz.
http://www.capitalnewyork.com/article/albany/2014/05/8545754/gentings-bid-dominate-downstate-casino-game