New York City’s next frontier of work is in gaming as the state considers awarding up to three new downstate casino licenses. Thankfully, we have a trusted partner right here in Queens ready to help this new workforce thrive, delivering thousands of jobs in the industry as soon as next year.
By now you’ve hopefully seen the headlines: Resorts World New York City will create 5,000 quality jobs as part of its $5.5 billion expansion. When you get down to it, the Big Apple’s only casino will add another 5,000 permanent team members within 6 months of being granted a commercial casino license. Ambitious? Yes. Necessary? Absolutely. Doable? You bet.
What stands out the most is the proactive approach Resorts World is taking now to get New Yorkers ready for careers tomorrow. Whether it’s the free course they offer in partnership with CUNY or the soon-to-open Resorts World Career Center right here in downtown Jamaica, Resorts World has taken a forward foot to help uplift Queens residents and preserve the middle class that makes this community strong.
Resorts World’s proactive push couldn’t come at a more necessary time. We all should have been alarmed earlier this year when Comptroller Tom DiNapoli warned the city’s youth unemployment rate had hit 13.2%. We may have even done a double take when we saw the share of Black New Yorkers, ages 16 to 24, who are out of work is 23.8%.
Young New Yorkers need jobs, they need career paths, and they need them soon. That’s why many of us in economic development are excited about opportunities that will come online when the state awards up to three new commercial casino licenses. Because Resorts World has been in our backyard for nearly 15 years, we have a sample size of what these careers will look like. About 80% of their 1,000 employees live within five miles of the facility, meaning their annualized median wage of $39 per hour, or $80,000 a year, stays right here in Southeast Queens.
These aren’t jobs just on the gaming floor. These New Yorkers have found work in hospitality, community development, IT, security, facilities, and food and beverage — just to name a few. Resorts World saw the impact their various departments had on Queens’ lives and knew they needed to do more.
So, in 2022, they partnered with CUNY/York College to deliver the “Intro to Gaming Operations” course. This free, six-week class has shown scores of Queens residents — including many Resorts World team members — the full scale of opportunities within the gaming industry. Demand for this course has been so popular that Resorts World and CUNY/York added a second offering this year.
“Intro to Gaming Operations” is just the tip of the iceberg for Resorts World’s workforce development plans. In the next few weeks, the Resorts World Career Center will open at Jamaica Station to become an accessible, community hub where thousands of people walking by on Archer Avenue can find out about career potentials at the casino. That will be followed up with experiential previews of what their state-of-the-art dealer school mirrored on their existing one in the Catskills.
You’ll hear more in the coming weeks about how this plan will help uplift countless families, both here in Queens and across New York City. But I’ll say we’re excited about the new opportunities coming online, the generational wealth it will help build, and the proactive effort Resorts World is taking to make their dreams come true.
