New Rivers Casino In Schenectady Expected To Open In Early 2017

The Rivers Casino & Resort at Mohawk Harbor in Schenectady in the state of New York is expected to open in first quarter of 2017 ahead of schedule, according to Rush Street Gaming’s CEO Greg Carlin.

The resort is expected to earn around $190 million by end of 2017.

In a statement, Greg Carlin Rush Street Gaming CEO said,

We’re already under construction here. We wanted to open this facility as quickly as possible. Our expected opening date is the first quarter of 2017, assuming the weather cooperates with us. That’s actually ahead of schedule.

The Rivers casino is a joint venture between Rush Street Gaming and Galesi Group and is being built for $330 million on a 60-acre site off Erie Boulevard. It was approved for a gaming licence by the state gambling commission in late December 2015.

The ground-breaking ceremony was held recently for the casino at Mohawk Harbor and was attended by a number of key executives from Rush Street Gaming, the Galesi group, community leaders and local officials.

Rush Street currently operates three casinos, which is the Rivers Casino in Des Plaines, Illinois, the Rivers Casino in Pittsburgh, and the SugarHouse Casino in Philadelphia. The company is pushing hard for the new casino to be built and is already making plans to hire new employees.

According to Mary Cheeks, the general manager of the Rivers Casino, the casino will have 63 table games, 1,150 slot machines and 15 poker tables. A 163-room hotel is also being planned adjacent to the casino but the management is yet to make a decision on what the name of hotel is to be. In addition to these gaming features, the casino will offer facilities that include a steakhouse with an outdoor patio, a banquet facility, day spa, entertainment lounge and ample waterfront green space.

The company is planning to start the process of hiring by launching a special website which is expected to go live by the end of the month. While a few experienced employees will be brought in from other Rush Street locations, the majority will be hired from within Schenectady. The casino has also tied up with the Schenectady County Community College for putting together a dealer-training program.

Overall, the project is expected to create 1,400 temporary construction jobs and 1,200 permanent jobs once the casino goes live. Schenectady County Legislature Chairman Tony Jasenski said that casino-resort project was complementing efforts in the downtown area to revitalize the region and also confirmed that with the addition of the casino project, investment into Schenectady County has now reached close to $1 billion.

Adrian Sterne

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