Genting, the Malaysian conglomerate controlled by billionaire Lim Kok Thay, is preparing to spend 5.5 billion dollars turning its young Queens casino into a full scale integrated resort, a bet that its first months in New York have gone well enough to justify one of the largest hospitality projects the city has seen in years. The plan would layer thousands of new hotel rooms, a purpose built arena, and a vast expansion of gaming space onto a site that only opened its doors to gamblers this spring.
The company frames the move as the natural second act for Resorts World New York City, which began operating as the first casino inside the five boroughs in April 2026. Built on a 72 acre parcel in southeastern Queens, the property has been running as a slot and electronic gaming hall for roughly 15 years, but the arrival of a full commercial license changed what Genting could put on the land, and the group is now racing to fill it.
What the 5.5 billion dollars buys
The centerpiece of the expansion is lodging on a scale the site has never had. Genting intends to add a 400 room tower alongside the existing 400 room Hyatt Regency, then build a separate 1,200 room hotel under its luxury Crockfords brand, the same name it uses for high end gaming in London and Las Vegas. Together the new rooms would give the resort the kind of overnight capacity that lets a casino keep guests and their spending on the property rather than sending them home at the end of the night.
Beyond the hotels, the company plans a 7,000 seat arena for concerts, sports, and other live events, plus around 2 million square feet of additional space for gaming floors, restaurants, shops, and convention halls. That new footprint would sit on top of the roughly 1 million square feet already in use, effectively tripling the size of what visitors experience today.
A rapid ramp on the casino floor
The gambling business is expanding just as quickly. Genting is installing 1,400 more slot machines this month on the way to a target of 6,000 in total, a jump of about half again over its current count. The company also wants to triple its table games to 800, a shift that signals a push toward the dealer run baccarat, blackjack, and roulette that tend to attract the highest spending players and the largest single wagers.
The early numbers help explain the confidence. Genting says Resorts World New York City ranked as the highest grossing casino in the United States by gaming revenue during its first 12 weeks of operation. In its opening three months the property paid about 170 million dollars in taxes, and the company projects that a fully built resort could generate roughly 2.2 billion dollars in annual revenue and hand New York close to 1 billion dollars in taxes each year.
From a licensing win to a construction race
The expansion follows Genting securing one of three downstate gaming licenses awarded in December 2025, a fiercely contested process that drew some of the biggest names in casinos and real estate to the New York region. Winning the license lifted the ceiling on what the Queens site could become, and the company appears determined to move before rivals finish their own projects and split the local market.
Lim, whose fortune Forbes pegs at around 1.6 billion dollars, cast the plan as the start of something the city has not had before. In less than three months after opening our doors as the first casino in New York City's history, he said, we are already moving towards a day when the city will have a first of its kind integrated resort. The group already runs gaming properties in New York, Las Vegas, the Bahamas, Malaysia, and Singapore, and it is now wagering that Queens can join that list as a marquee destination rather than a local gambling hall. The property employs roughly 2,500 people and draws close to 5 million visitors a year, figures Genting expects to climb sharply if the buildout lands as planned.
