And I’ve seen some spectacular wins on the floor just within my own range of vision, so players do seem to have some good luck here (probably helped out by that payback).Īnother side effect of this arrangement is Empire City is not allowed actual dealer tables, so they have electronic versions of Craps, Roulette, Blackjack and so on throughout the casino in pretty heavy numbers, both newer and older systems.īecause it’s a lottery-based system, a couple of other differing details is that you can play at the age of 18, and that above $600 (but below a true handpay) you get a voucher that must be redeemed at the cashier.įinally, the use of the “scratcher” model means that the video poker machines shown on the floor are not based on a deck of cards but a predetermined outcome, so they are not skill-driven outcomes but what the game has already decided it will pay you. They’re popular everywhere now, but they’re certainly popular here. The casino has a ton of progressive driven games – they are very popular here. For low denomination players that are in the area this can make the games a bit more advantageous. First off, they’re not actually slots – it’s gaming machines operated under the oversight of the New York Lottery and in practice work like scratch tickets – there’s a predetermined set of winners and losers over a certain number of outcomes, and each spin of the machine is the purchase of a ticket.Īs a result of this, all machines are required by state law to pay back at least 90 percent, even penny machines, which in other states, as reported here in the past, pay less than that.

There’s a few things that are different about the property. There’s more than 5,000 machines, mostly on one floor, although there are a few machines and a high limit room upstairs. Casino FloorĪs the casino is effectively attached to Yonkers Raceway, the property sprawls on one side of the race track from one end to the other. More recently, I paid a fresh visit to the casino in spring 2022, this review was last updated April of 2022 to incorporate those thoughts. Still, it is a huge property in a relatively prime location, and as someone who at one point lived near the NY-CT border, I played there relatively frequently for a time. Yet it is also not the most accessible either, and because of its attachment to a horse racing facility has some unusual gaming rules that its new owner MGM hopes to change in the coming years. Empire City Casino has an enviable location, being near the millions of people that call New York City home.

List of slot machines at empire casino