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Can a $1.2 Billion Casino Lure Asian Tourists to the Catskills?

Empire Resorts plans to open new NY resort in February
Malaysian billionaire Lim controls both Empire and Genting

By Bruce Einhorn and Christopher Palmeri

February 1, 2018 at 4:00 PM UTC

This article is part of the February 5, 2018 issue of businessweek.

If a billionaire from Malaysia has his way, Asian tourists will soon be flocking to the Borscht Belt region in the Catskills Mountains that was once the summer home for generations of Jewish New Yorkers.

Empire Resorts Inc., controlled by Lim Kok Thay, chairman of Genting Bhd., on Feb. 8 will open Resorts World Catskills, a $1.2 billion casino, hotel and entertainment complex at the site of the old Concord Resort Hotel, the largest of the upstate New York resorts that helped launch the careers of Rodney Dangerfield, Jerry Lewis, Sid Caesar, Joan Rivers and other Jewish comedians.

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