That said, it was incredibly busy, so that incremental evolution is probably not hurting them much. There were some new games, installation expansions of popular games that had been hard to get on previously, and so on, but it was most of an incremental evolution than anything else. Many of the games that I had seen on my first visit in 2017 were in the same locations nearly five years later. Machines were still in long, compact rows, an aspect abandoned in most of the other casinos in an era of social distancing. Unlike most other MGM casinos I had visited since the pandemic, the amount of change at Empire City was nominal at best. So, I thought it’d be a great time to check the place out, see what had changed, and see what the tier earnings situation looked like.įirst off, I was quite surprised at how little had changed.

But for a few years, Empire City Casino was in fact the closest one to me, a less than 45 minute drive from my apartment when I was working in New York City. I hadn’t been to Empire City Casino since their acquisition by MGM, as I had moved closer to the more traditional CT casinos and MGM Springfield.

After my visit to MGM Springfield to scope out the tier earnings situation, I realized I had another option that I could check out roughly a similar distance in a different direction.

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