The Turn To Tara team took an all-access tour of Resorts World New York as the casino prepares to make a bid for a full-scale gaming license.

The sprawling property at the Aqueduct Race Track in Queens is owned by Genting Group and widely considered a front-runner in the licensing battle. There are roughly about a dozen operators betting on the chance to bring live table games to the downstate area.

“One of the things that’s important to know that differentiates us from some of our competitors, MGM aside, is that we are in existing operation here in New York, an existing gaming operation. And with that comes legislative issues that we work on throughout the year, regardless of if we are vying for a downstate commercial casino license or not,” says Meghan Taylor, vice president of government affairs for Resorts World New York. “And it’s easy to forget some of those details when these big numbers are coming out there.”

Taylor is placing a big bet on the Big Apple.

“I think the New York gaming market has continued to grow and New York is on the precipice of being viewed, I think, as one of the key gaming destinations in the world,” she says. “You wouldn’t have everyone coming out to compete if it wasn’t a viable market to compete in.”