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About Midnight Gold
The redevelopment was financed by a $455 million loan from New York State, approved in 2023. State officials have projected the project will generate $155 million in annual economic activity once fully operational, along with around $10 million annually in state and local tax revenue.
The redesigned complex features four distinct racing surfaces: a 1½-mile dirt track, two turf courses, and a one-mile Tapeta synthetic track.
The Tapeta surface will be used exclusively for winter racing, allowing Belmont to take over Aqueduct’s former winter schedule as NYRA consolidates its operations at Belmont and Saratoga.
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The board is hoping that the proposal drafts or more or less finalised, though there will likely be input from stakeholders during the comment period and at the hearing. One group that typically weighs in on such matters, the Association of Gaming Equipment Manufacturers, did not respond to a request for comment by Friday’s deadline for publication. Depending on the amount of feedback or potential objections from the Nevada Gaming Commission, the new standards could be adopted and published by year’s end.
Overall, it’s been a busy stretch for the board since the start of 2025. In that time the regulator has issued five multimillion-dollar anti-money laundering fines to entities on the Las Vegas Strip, an unprecedented run of sanctions for America’s gambling capital.
Four of the investigations – those involving Resorts World Las Vegas, MGM Resorts, Caesars Entertainment and the Venetian – centred around AML violations related to illegal bookmaker Mathew Bowyer, who was placed on the state’s exclusion list in April. The other case involving Wynn Las Vegas did not pertain to play from Bowyer.
About Midnight Gold
All nine of Atlantic City’s casinos agreed to new labour deals this summer without a strike, although its union opted for just one-year deals instead of the typical length of three or more years. This was in response to increased uncertainty related to looming competition from both New York City casinos and New Jersey’s own online gaming industry.
In Las Vegas, the Culinary Union has unionised the entire Las Vegas Strip and secured historic wage increases during the last round of negotiations. Those deals are about halfway done now, and Culinary is no stranger to strikes, having used them as leverage to secure new deals in the run-up to the inaugural Formula One Las Vegas Grand Prix in 2023 and and Super Bowl the following February.
Jess has covered the global gaming industry since 2022. A native of Reno, Nevada, he’d like to note that it’s Ne-va-da, not Ne-VAH-da.
