Caesars Entertainment's casino bid in Massachusetts may have gone up in smoke, but the Las Vegas-based operator is still bent on establishing a presence in the Northeast. So with Massachusetts out of the question, Caesars is setting its sights on New York.

The company officially made its intentions known after announcing a proposal to build a $750 million casino complex in upstate New York, 50 miles north of New York City. The proposal calls for Caesar to build the establishment in Woodbury, Orange County, a stone's throw away from the world famous Woodbury Commons outlet. A casino is part of the proposal, but on top of that, the company also plans to build a hotel and a convention center to add to the 52 casinos it already operates around the world.

Caesars has also paid the $1 million casino license application fee the state requires interested applicants to pay to gambling regulators, beating the Wednesday deadline set by state regulators.

The location Caesars is eyeing comes with a casino license fee of $70 million, the biggest amount any operator will have to pay for any of the state's locations. The close proximity to the Big Apple is a big reason for that. Outside of Orange County and Dutchess County, casino license fees range from $20 to $50 million, the latter of which is reserved for the Albany region, as well as the Wayne County and Seneca County.

But Caesars doesn't appear to be interested in any out of the outlying regions, eyeing the biggest potential market for its casino proposal. It could pay off handsomely if it wins a license, but even that is still up in the air because of the tremendous amount of interest a lot of operators have in applying for these New York licenses.

Only four of the seven casinos being earmarked by the state are set to become available for the time being; the latter three will be made available at a later date. Make no mistake, Caesars wants a piece of any one of those four licenses, but it's going to have a lot of competition as the New York State Gaming Commission plans to release the names of groups that have submitted application fees later this week.

This is a reprint from calvinayre.com. To view the original, click here.