BY COLE SINANIAN
JAMAICA — Opponents of billionaire Steve Cohen’s Hard Rock Metropolitan Park casino will have to wait a bit longer before they can make their case against it in court.
At a hearing Wednesday, Queens Supreme Court Judge Timothy Dufficy said he’d decide by July 1 whether a lawsuit against the New York State Gaming Commission and casino developer Queens Future LLC would be heard in Manhattan or Queens.
The lawsuit, filed by Flushing residents Bernadette McCrann and Jack Hu, Jackson Heights residents Leonard Maniace and Sarah Ahn, and Woodhaven resident Xochitl Arenas, seeks to reverse the Gaming Commission’s decision to issue a casino license to Queens Future on December 15, 2025 and a restraining order to halt the casino’s construction. The petitioners allege under New York’s Article 78 that the casino’s public engagement process was biased towards pro-casino voices and that the Gaming Commission did not adequately consider Cohen’s moral character and reputation as required by the Gaming Commission’s own rules.
But the question of where the case should be tried has led to several delays since it was first filed in Manhattan on March 20. While the State Gaming Commission officially issued the casino’s license in Manhattan, the engagement process that preceded the licensing took place in Queens
On March 27, New York County Supreme Court Judge Nicholas Moyne dismissed the lawsuit on the grounds that Manhattan court is not the proper venue for the case. Judge Moyne then recused himself from the case on April 2, citing a “tangential social relationship” with a respondent, before petitioners refiled in Queens County on April 13. On Wednesday, Gaming Commission attorney Robert Arnay argued that the petitioner’s move to refile the case in Queens was “legally incorrect,” as they had previously argued the exact opposite: that Manhattan was the proper venue for the case — not Queens — after Judge Moyne’s initial dismissal.
Also on the defendants’ legal team is prominent civil rights lawyer and former election attorney for Mayor Zohran Mamdani Ali Najmi, who’s representing Queens Future.
Speaking outside the courtroom Wednesday morning, Hu — a prominent anti-casino organizer and son of a gambling addict — called into question the integrity of the case’s legal proceedings thus far.
“We have no choice, the statute of limitations is coming up,” Hu told the Queens Ledger. “We just want our day in court, and the gaming commission, the judge, and all of the different parties are trying to ping pong us between two venues, and it’s not right.”
The lawsuit is based on allegations that the Community Advisory Committee (CAC) that the Gaming Commission convened to collect public feedback during the casino’s review process last year was controlled by the Gaming Commission, therefore compromising the casino’s engagement process and invalidating its license.
Petitioners have pointed to a CAC meeting on September 16 at Queens Borough Hall that saw 79 speakers sign up to testify. They allege that despite arriving early to sign up, the petitioners and other anti-casino voices were prevented from testifying due to the CAC staff’s mismanagement of the event. In court documents, petitioners describe watching as CAC staff failed to stop people from cutting the sign-up line, whom petitioners later learned were mostly pro-casino. Additionally, State Assemblymember Larinda Hooks — who was Chair of the CAC — ended the meeting prematurely, preventing many anti-casino voices who had signed up from speaking. All told, 46 pro-casino voices got to testify compared to just eight anti-casino voices, despite many more having signed up.
The $8 billion Metropolitan Park Casino project has garnered fierce opposition since it was first proposed in 2023, with Queens residents holding a series of rallies and town halls focused on how the casino could encourage gambling addiction and affect the health of the local community. It would be built on a 78-acre plot of land next to CitiField in Flushing, much of which was once designated a parkland, until a park alienation bill introduced by State Senator John Liu passed last year.
“My husband and my three sons all fell into gambling,” said Flushing resident and retired home care worker Bao Jin Qiu at a rally in December. “Gambling has destroyed my family, and many families like mine,” “This is about our whole community.”
