Del Lago Resort & Casino of New York is expected Monday to become the third of the four upstate casinos to gain state approval to lower its inventory of slot machines on its gaming floor. They are seeking a 15 percent reduction in its slot machines, attributing the request to plans to soon offer sports betting through an alliance with DraftKings.
The $400 million facility which opened more than two years ago, was required by state regulations to have at least 1,950 slot machines, 84 table games and 10 poker tables. But now their request is to reduce to 1,650 slots and 66 table games.
The reduction for the other facilities were:
- Resorts World: the largest of the four upstate casinos, was the most sought: It was allowed to shed 26 percent of its machines, down to 1,600 slots.
- Tioga Downs: was approved to go from 942 slots to 892 slots.
- Rivers Casino: in Schenectady has 1,150 slot machines, and it has indicated it has no plans to reduce it.
With fewer slot machines, it means they can lower costs and boost their win per day per machine, an industry standard to gauge revenue based on how much is bet compared to the number of slot machines.
Casinos want to be at least above $200 a day per machine, but del Lago averaged about $162 per machine this year, while Tioga Downs was close to $200 a day and Resorts World was the lowest at $122 per machine.
Finally, the four upstate casinos are hoping they will get a boost soon from sports betting onsite.
