On Main Street in Flushing's Chinatown, fruit stands and family restaurants crowd the sidewalk, businesses that have rooted themselves in the neighborhood for decades. Now residents fear those establishments, and the working-class community itself, face erasure from a massive casino development backed by New York Mets owner Steve Cohen and Hard Rock International.
Metropolitan Park would transform parking lots adjacent to Citi Field into a casino, hotel, restaurants, entertainment venues and a public park straddling Flushing and Corona. The project carries an $8 billion price tag and promises over 23,000 jobs and $100 million in annual local spending. It won one of New York's three downstate casino licenses in December 2025.
But in a neighborhood already grappling with gambling addiction, residents see the project as a calculated extraction of wealth from vulnerable populations. Research shows Chinese immigrant communities experience higher rates of problem gambling than the general population due to cultural attitudes toward luck, immigration stress, isolation, and barriers to mental health access. Casino marketing often specifically targets Chinese-speaking clients.
Jack Hu, a 37-year-old Flushing resident and member of the No Casino in Flushing Meadows Corona Park campaign, calls it exploitation. His own father developed a gambling addiction shortly after immigrating to the United States decades ago.
"This is a working-class community and the Metropolitan Park casino is also going to extract wealth from the most vulnerable," Hu said. "Casino operators use things like meal coupons, free bus vouchers, free gambling vouchers to lure working-class Asians into casinos so that they can take their money."
The Urban Institute estimated the project could displace nearly 16,000 renters who already spend more than half their income on housing in Corona and Flushing. Many local business owners have recently struggled with tariffs on Chinese imports, making goods more expensive. Rising commercial rents tied to the casino could finish off shops already under pressure.
A poll commissioned during a Democratic primary race found 61% of likely voters in New York's sixth congressional district oppose the casino, with only 20% in support. Democratic candidate Chuck Park, who knocked on 6,000 doors during his campaign, heard consistent opposition. "We heard from really socially conservative first-generation immigrants who thought that the casino would bring crime, human trafficking, and lead to major quality-of-life concerns," Park said. "We also heard from young progressive leftist activists that this casino is a giveaway of public land to a billionaire."
Project backers dispute displacement concerns. A comprehensive environmental impact study "was conducted, finding that Metropolitan Park will not directly displace any existing businesses or residents," a Metropolitan Park spokesperson said. The project includes over $1 billion in community benefits, including funding for addiction and mental health services, with agreements to create culturally sensitive programs through organizations including Hamilton-Madison House and Korean Community Services.
The casino also benefited from an unexpected alliance. State Senator John Liu introduced legislation allowing the state to repurpose public parkland for the project. In 2024, Liu had himself written that casinos would inflict "disproportionate harm" on "historically marginalized" communities. He later explained his shift as inevitable given a 2012 voter referendum mandating three downstate casinos.
Campaign finance records show Liu received a $5,000 donation in 2025 from a political action committee funded largely by the Hotel and Gaming Trades Council labor union. Liu's office defended the contribution as part of two decades of union support for workers "mostly immigrant women of color."
In exchange for supporting the project, Cohen pledged to build a pedestrian bridge connecting downtown Flushing to Willets Point, which Liu calls the "Flushing Skypark." Project representatives claim they conducted nearly four years of community engagement through over 30 public meetings, winning approval from six community boards, the city council, state legislature, a community advisory committee and the gaming commission.
Skepticism runs deep. Residents note that nearby Citi Field and the US Open have brought little foot traffic or spending to Flushing's independent businesses, doubting a resort with its own restaurants and amenities would prove different. As one bakery employee who immigrated from China seven years ago put it: "Tourists might bring money, but the casino could also bring trouble here."
For Hu, the project's arrival represents a final blow to a community already stretched thin. His father, like thousands of others in Flushing, carried hope for building wealth into the neighborhood and found it channeled instead into addiction.
"It's like you've grown up your entire life with nothing. You come here seeking to build a better life for yourself and for your family, and it's these types of people that fall victim to these predatory businesses that tell you that you can get wealthy quickly," Hu said.
Author James Rodriguez: "The pattern is as old as casinos themselves, but what makes this one sting is how brazenly it targets a community that already knows the cost."
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