Resorts World New York City welcomed the year of the rabbit with a Lunar New Year celebration Monday, Jan. 23, with a traditional lion dance ceremony in the Grand Concourse of the Hyatt Regency at JFK Airport. Community members and Resorts World executives took part in an eye-dotting ceremony to bless and protect the property before a performance by the Wan Chi Ming Hung Gar Institute.
“This month, we enter the Year of the Rabbit,” Genting Americas East President Robert DeSalvio said during his opening remarks. “Rabbits are swift and clever, and we hope to be the same as a company.”
Genting, which operates Resorts World, is considered a front-runner for three of the downstate full-casino licenses the state will award this year. A full casino license means that in addition to its 6,500 slots and electronic table games, Resorts World would be able to introduce live dealers at table games such as poker, blackjack and roulette on two levels of gaming space.
“We have a lot to look forward to this year,” DeSalvios said. “We’re preparing to expand our gaming and entertainment options as we continue to work with community partners to establish Queens as a global tourist destination.”
In October, Resorts World NYC celebrated its 11th anniversary at Aqueduct Race Track in South Ozone Park, generating more than $3.6 billion in support of New York’s public schools while becoming an economic engine in southeast Queens. Resorts World created a strong and diverse union workforce of hundreds of New Yorkers, a majority of whom are people of color and nearly half of whom are women. In the summer of 2021, they opened the $400 million Hyatt Regency JFK Airport at Resorts World, a 400-room, four-star hotel that added even more jobs.
“We would not even be here today without the support of our neighbors and our community partners, so I’d like to take a moment to say thank you,” DeSalvio said. “On behalf of Resorts World New York City, we wish you a happy new year.”
Additional reporting by Paul Frangipane.
