Losses mount for owner of Sullivan casino

Empire Resorts has reported $26.4 million in red ink for the third quarter of this year.

THOMPSON, N.Y. >> Empire Resorts, which owns the struggling Resorts World Catskills casino in Sullivan County, had a third-quarter operating loss of $26.4 million, according to its latest filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

The loss was smaller than the $33.9 million in red ink in the same quarter of 2018.

Empire, which also operates nearby Monticello Raceway, now has losses for 2019 totaling $100.1 million, up from $97.2 million for the first three quarters of last year.

Empire’s loss for all of 2018 was $138.7 million.

Resorts World, at the site of the former Concord Hotel, opened in February 2018, and its parent company has been posting financial losses ever since. The casino launched sports betting in September, but it won’t be clear if Empire has benefited from that addition until the company’s fourth-quarter financial report is filed.

Empire previously reduced the number of slot machines at Resorts World and shut down its electronic gambling operation at Monticello Raceway.

In August of this year, Empire said if it could not secure financing to bail itself out, it might have to go the bankruptcy route. But the Malaysian company that holds the majority Empire’s stock then offered to purchase the remaining shares and keep the operation in business.

Resorts World is one of

four Las Vegas-style casinos that opened across New York state in 2017 and 2018, joining an already crowded Northeast gambling market, leading skeptics to say competing would be difficult.

One of the other four New York gaming halls, Del Lago, in the Finger Lakes region, also has been struggling with steep losses.

The state’s other two new casinos are in Schenectady and the Southern Tier.