Mets proprietor ‘hires finest group cash can purchase’ to win NYC on line casino license

Billionaire hedge fund titan Steve Cohen is pursuing the rights to construct a on line casino in Queens with the identical zeal with which he has stockpiled the high-priced roster of his Mets, in line with a report.

Cohen, whose internet price is valued by Bloomberg at $13.1 billion by way of his possession of the Point72 Asset Administration hedge fund, has employed a military of lobbyists to influence native officers to grant him a license to function one among three casinos deliberate for the New York Metropolis space.

“He has employed the perfect group that cash can purchase,” Warren Schreiber, who heads a Queens civic group against the on line casino, informed Bloomberg Information.

Cohen was the most important single donor to Mayor Eric Adams’s 2021 election marketing campaign, pumping $2 million into exterior PACs to help Adams within the Democratic major, Bloomberg reported.

HIs chief of workers at Point72, Michael Sullivan, has contributed to the political campaigns of elected officers who will grant approval for a on line casino license, together with Gov. Kathy Hochul and state lawmakers from Queens, in line with Bloomberg Information.

The Mets proprietor, who’s vying for the prized license towards heavyweight rivals such because the Adelson family-owned Las Vegas Sands, Resorts World, Associated Cos. and Wynn Resorts, is reportedly partnering with Seminole Onerous Rock on a bid to construct a gaming web site on land adjoining to Citi Discipline in Flushing, Queens.

The Seminole Tribe of Florida acquired the Onerous Rock model in 2007.

The corporate operates dozens of casinos and resorts all through North America, together with the Mirage in Las Vegas.

Cohen and Seminole Onerous Rock would construct the on line casino on a car parking zone simply west of Citi Discipline.

To win a license, Cohen should first pay a $1 million utility charge. If he’s chosen, he should then fork over $500 million for the license itself.

Anybody who snags a on line casino license should then decide to spending an extra $500 million as a minimal funding within the undertaking, in line with Bloomberg Information.

Judging by his possession of the Mets, cash isn’t any impediment to Cohen, who has reportedly retained the providers of eight lobbying corporations who’re urgent elected officers in each metropolis and state authorities.

The Mets this 12 months have the very best payroll in main league historical past at $353 million.

Final 12 months, a Cohen ally, Vincent Tortorella, fashioned New Inexperienced Willets, a restricted legal responsibility firm that’s planning to spend not less than $729,000 this 12 months in lobbying charges for licensing, gaming, and land use points.

Cohen’s spouse, Alexandra, donated $117,300 to New York State’s Democratic Committee final 12 months, in line with The Metropolis.

Sullivan gave some $35,000 complete to a number of state lawmakers who characterize the areas in and round Citi Discipline.

Final month, Queens Assemblyman Jeffrion Aubry launched laws that may enable Cohen to redevelop the overflow parking heaps across the baseball group’s Citi Discipline right into a on line casino and leisure advanced.

As well as, Cohen has spent greater than $1 million on a public relations blitz together with “visioning” classes with Queens residents in addition to social media campaigns and a web page referred to as “Queens Future.”

The “Queens Future” web site makes no express point out of a on line casino. As a substitute, it speaks about an “alternative” to “re-imagine this house and remodel our future.”

A on line casino within the 5 boroughs can be a money cow for whoever owns it in addition to for the state, which might get a minimize of the income.

An evaluation commissioned by the state discovered {that a} on line casino in Queens may doubtlessly generate $1.9 billion per 12 months by 2025.

A on line casino in Flushing can be notably advantageous for Cohen given the big Asian immigrant inhabitants in Queens — a coveted demographic..

One potential stumbling block to a Cohen-owned on line casino is the state’s requirement of a background disclosure kind the place candidates attest to their “integrity, honesty, good character and fame.”

In 2014, Cohen’s hedge fund SAC Capital was compelled to pay a $1.8 billion penalty to the federal authorities after pleading responsible to wire fraud and securities fraud.

Cohen, who was by no means charged criminally, was accused of failing to forestall insider buying and selling on the firm, which he based in 1992 and which bears his initials. 

The Publish has sought remark from Cohen.