The Closest Casino to Midtown Is 44 Minutes on the A Train. Every Other Casino Near New York City, Ranked by Real Travel Time

Since April 28, 2026 the only live blackjack table inside New York City is at the end of a 44-minute subway ride, and Resorts World won $134.3 million in October. Everything else is a train, a bus or a car, and the order is not the one most New Yorkers assume.

Published 2026-11-09.

Resorts World New York City won $134.3 million in October 2026, which made a racino at Aqueduct the highest-grossing casino in New York State for the sixth month running and, by a wide margin, the most convenient one for anyone in Manhattan. The A train's scheduled running time from 42nd Street–Port Authority to Aqueduct–North Conduit Avenue is 44 minutes on a weekend and 46 on a weekday, and a skybridge connects the Aqueduct Racetrack station to the casino floor.

That is the top of the list. The rest of it depends on whether you are driving, and on the fact that two of the three nearest casinos still have no dealers. This ranking uses the operators' own published schedules, read on November 9, 2026; traffic in and out of New York makes every drive time a floor, not a forecast.

In 60 seconds

Full casinos, in order from Midtown: Resorts World NYC (44 to 46 minutes by subway, live tables since April 2026, free parking), Wind Creek Bethlehem (1 hour 45 minutes to 2 hours 30 minutes on Trans-Bridge from Port Authority, $66 round trip with $45 of slot play), Resorts World Catskills (1 hour 40 minutes on Coach USA, $63.25 with $30 of play), Atlantic City (NJ Transit's 319 bus, $48.30 round trip), Foxwoods and Mohegan Sun (about 2 hours 30 minutes on Amtrak to New London plus a bus). Machines only: Empire City in Yonkers (32 minutes on Metro-North plus a shuttle), Jake's 58 on Long Island (82 minutes on the LIRR plus a cab), Resorts World Hudson Valley in Newburgh. Our casinos near New York page keeps the straight-line distances.

01

Inside the city: Resorts World, 44 minutes

Resorts World opened at Aqueduct Racetrack in October 2011 with video lottery terminals and nothing else, and ran that way for fourteen and a half years. The state awarded it one of the three downstate casino licenses on December 15, 2025, and on April 28, 2026 it opened live tables; by August it was averaging 242 of them and running more than 3,900 machines, and its own pages now claim more than 4,000. Our New York licensing post covers how it got there. The state's October figures put it at $134.3 million for the month against $20.2 million at the next-largest casino, Rivers Schenectady.

Getting there is the easy part. Northbound A trains stop at Aqueduct Racetrack at all times, and the station's 2013 rebuild, paid for by the casino, added an elevator and an enclosed skybridge straight onto the floor. Southbound trains skip that station and stop 900 feet further on at Aqueduct–North Conduit Avenue, where a casino shuttle waits at the street exit; the scheduled run from 42nd Street is 44 minutes on weekends and 46 on weekdays, and the return from the Racetrack station is the same. The fare is a subway fare. The casino also runs a free shuttle for Genting Rewards members from 640 Eighth Avenue at Times Square, 310 West 31st Street by Penn Station and 95 Wall Street, with hourly departures from noon and arrivals posted roughly 55 to 70 minutes later, which is slower than the train. Parking in the surface lots is free for everyone and in the garage for members. The Hyatt Regency JFK on the property has 400 rooms and is, as the casino puts it, the city's first and only casino hotel.

The ground broke on a $5 billion expansion in July 2026, with a second hotel tower and a 7,000-seat arena, after the racetrack ran its last race in June. For now it is a very large, very busy floor with free parking at the end of a subway line.

02

Close but no dealers: Yonkers, Islandia, Newburgh

Empire City at Yonkers Raceway is the second-closest gaming floor to Manhattan and the one most people would rank first. MGM withdrew its bid for a full license on October 14, 2025, so it remains a video lottery facility: slot-style terminals run on the state's central system and electronic blackjack, craps, roulette and baccarat with no dealer. Metro-North's Harlem Line runs from Grand Central to Mount Vernon West in 23 to 36 minutes, 32 on the median train, and the casino's long-standing arrangement provides a free shuttle from that station; Bee-Line routes 7, 20, 21, 430, 440 and 470 and the BxM4C express also stop at the casino. MGM's own pages refused our tools, so we have not confirmed the shuttle's current hours. Yonkers collects about $30 million a year from the property; a Yonkers paper noted in October that "the closest live tables in the city are at Resorts World New York City in Queens." Jake's 58 in Islandia, Suffolk County, is 1,000 machines and electronic table games, open 8 a.m. to 4 a.m., with a 200-room hotel and free self-parking, and an expansion under way to add another thousand terminals. The LIRR's Ronkonkoma Branch takes 78 to 87 minutes from Penn Station and 79 to 82 from Grand Central Madison, and Ronkonkoma is the nearest station; the last leg is a taxi. Jake's publishes no shuttle, so budget for the cab. Resorts World Hudson Valley opened on December 28, 2022 in the former Bon-Ton at the Newburgh Mall, about 1,200 terminals and 82 electronic table games. It is a drive up the Thruway; neither the casino's site nor Coach USA's Short Line pages list a casino bus from the city, and a Manhattan player has no reason to pass Yonkers for it.
03

The bus casinos: Bethlehem and the Catskills

Wind Creek Bethlehem calls itself "only 82 miles and a fast 90 minutes" from New York, and in a car on a Sunday morning that is roughly right. The bus is the real story. Trans-Bridge Lines runs seven days a week from Port Authority to the casino door, with a Special Same-Day Fare of $66 that includes the round trip and $45 of free slot play, handed over when you show your return ticket to the casino greeter; the regular one-way fare is $52. The June 8, 2026 timetable has the weekday 9 a.m. departure arriving at 11:30, a 2-hour-30-minute run via Newark Airport and Clinton, and the weekend 9:30 departure arriving at 11:15, 1 hour 45 minutes. Returns leave the casino at 2:30 and 6 p.m. on weekdays and 5:50 p.m. on weekends. Tickets are at the Peter Pan counter on the subway level of the terminal. What waits at the other end is the former Sands, 3,000-plus slots, about 200 tables, a 20-table poker room, a 302-room hotel and a smoking section on the floor, and the busiest motorcoach business of any casino in Pennsylvania. Resorts World Catskills in Monticello, with 332 suites in its tower, 112 tables and 2,150 slots, has the other organized bus. Coach USA leaves Port Authority daily at 9:30 a.m. and arrives at 11:10, a 1-hour-40-minute run, and returns at 2:20 and 6:20 p.m.; the $63.25 round trip includes $30 of free slot play, and the return is also good from the Monticello bus terminal, which has more departures. Casino-bus economics being what they are, the $30 and $45 bonuses are what make these trips cheaper than they look, and they are offered by the casinos and can change without notice. Our Catskills and NYC guide covers the property itself. Mount Airy in the Poconos says it is "two hours or less" from New York and offers bus groups $35 of play after 250 points, but lists no scheduled New York service; Martz runs regular buses from Port Authority to Mount Pocono at $55 one way without a casino package.
04

Atlantic City, and the Connecticut pair

Atlantic City is still the casino town New Yorkers mean when they say "the casino," and it is the furthest of the practical options. NJ Transit's route 319 runs from Port Authority down the Garden State Parkway to the Atlantic City Bus Terminal at the 1900 block of Atlantic Avenue, three blocks from the rail terminal, and NJ Transit sells a $48.30 round trip from New York, Jersey City or Newark that expires ten days after purchase. The timetable was not readable by our tools; the drive is well over two hours, and the bus is not faster. The train is a detour: Amtrak to Philadelphia in 66 to 73 minutes on Acela or 81 to 100 on a Regional, then NJ Transit's Atlantic City Rail Line, twelve trains a day, $13.05 one way, to a terminal where jitney routes 1, 2 and 3 to the casinos are free. Our Atlantic City bus post and Atlantic City ranking take over from there. The city's nine casinos won $227.8 million in September 2026, down 1.3 percent on the year, a smaller dent than 242 new tables in Queens might suggest.

Foxwoods and Mohegan Sun are "just a couple of hours" away in Foxwoods' phrasing and closer to three in practice. Amtrak's Northeast Regional runs from Moynihan Train Hall to New London in 2 hours 28 minutes to 2 hours 58 minutes, and Foxwoods says New London is "just 20 minutes" from its door, with the SEAT district's route 108 running daily from Union Station to the Great Cedar Hotel. Foxwoods lists no scheduled New York bus, only charters; Mohegan Sun's directions pages were unreachable. For the comparison between the two, our Foxwoods vs Mohegan Sun post is the place. For a day trip from Manhattan, neither is.
05

Ranked, and where the usual advice is wrong

CasinoLive tablesScheduled transit time from MidtownFare, as published
Resorts World NYC, QueensYes, since April 202644 to 46 min, A trainSubway fare; member shuttle free
Empire City, YonkersNo23 to 36 min Metro-North to Mount Vernon West, plus shuttleMetro-North zone 3
Jake's 58, IslandiaNo78 to 87 min LIRR to Ronkonkoma, plus taxiLIRR fare plus cab
Wind Creek Bethlehem, PAYes1 h 45 min weekend, 2 h 30 min weekday, Trans-Bridge$66 round trip incl. $45 play
Resorts World Catskills, MonticelloYes1 h 40 min, Coach USA$63.25 round trip incl. $30 play
Atlantic CityYesNot readable; bus 319 via the Parkway$48.30 round trip
Foxwoods and Mohegan Sun, CTYes2 h 28 min to 2 h 58 min Amtrak to New London, plus 20 minAmtrak fare plus bus

The standard advice, that a New Yorker who wants a real casino takes the bus to Atlantic City, was true for forty years and stopped being true on April 28, 2026. The subway is faster than any bus on this list, the parking is free, and the floor is bigger than any in Atlantic City. What Atlantic City still has is the ocean, nine casinos within a jitney ride, hotel rooms at the casino, and a poker room at Borgata that Queens does not match; what the Connecticut pair still have is scale. Those are reasons to go for a weekend, not for an afternoon.

The other correction is Yonkers. Empire City is the casino most Bronx residents could reach fastest by car, and for a slot player it is a fine floor. For anyone who wants a dealer, the train to Mount Vernon West leads to a room full of machines, and the A train is the better half hour. If gambling has stopped being a cost you set in advance, 1-800-GAMBLER is free and confidential.

What was checked, and when. Scheduled transit times were computed on November 9, 2026 from the MTA's published GTFS timetables for the subway, Metro-North and the Long Island Rail Road and from Amtrak's GTFS feed, as the range and median of all scheduled trips between the named stops; times vary by train and day. Bus times and fares are from Trans-Bridge Lines' June 8, 2026 timetable and fare page and Coach USA's Resorts World Catskills page; the 319 and Atlantic City Rail Line fares are from NJ Transit's fare pages and the rail line's fare chart effective July 1, 2026; the 319 timetable itself could not be read. Casino facts are from rwnewyork.com, jakes58.com, windcreek.com, mountairycasino.com, martzbus.com and foxwoods.com, from Wikipedia's station and casino articles where the operator's site was unreachable (Empire City, Resorts World Hudson Valley, Resorts World Catskills, Mohegan Sun), and from CDC Gaming's November 9, 2026 report of October revenue and Elite Sports NY's report of the DGE's September figures. Driving distances are the operators' own where quoted. Not verified: Empire City's current shuttle hours and machine count, and any casino bus from Manhattan's Chinatown.

Last updated November 9, 2026

Topics

  • new-york
  • nyc
  • queens
  • yonkers
  • transit

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