This place is horrible! You never win here and I mean NEVER! The machines just steal your money and pay nothing.
You are better off buying yourself something that you like with the money you will surely lose at Empire City. I feel sorry for most of the people who go there because they look like they cannot affort to lose their rent and grocery money, which is what they are doing. How foolish of anyone to visit Empire City. Save your money and go to Mohegan Sun or Atlantic City once in a while, but please please skip this place. Your odds of winning are 0%. No one ever wins here. You can also fill out a form and have yourself banned from receiving any Empire City $5 vouchers (big deal) and you can ban yourself from going there. That is everyone's best bet! Ban yourself from getting robbed at this place!

Anyone know best night to meet someone in the lounge?

Almost anyone who has ever gambled knows the percentages are always in the casino's favor. I've been playing craps for almost 50 years and I can tell you there is no such thing as a winning system. It's all about money management and self
control. Limiting loses and taking advantage of hot streaks when they come is the best advice I can offer. For those that have visited Empire City and have played the Video Craps Machines, please listen to me, STAY AWAY! These machines are not
random number generator programs. These machines are cheating the unknowing public out of hundreds of millions of dollars a year. These machines will interact based of the amount of money bet. Sure the one and two dollar bets will get some action, but once a player starts betting a little higher the machine starts to grind you out. You have no chance of winning once you start betting higher amounts or start pressing any of your wins. I've seen rolls on these machines I haven't witnessed in 50 years playing at casinos! This is not gambling when you play these Video Craps Machines, this is the State of New York stealing your hard earned money. Please, it's so heart breaking to watch so many people sit down at these machines thinking they are honest random number machines and lose thousands and thousands of dollars day in day out. If you played poker and saw two aces of spades in the same hand of the guy who was winning all night and had everyone's money at the table, you'd want to kill the bastard, knowing he was cheating everyone. Well Empire City is that same guy, if your one of those knuckleheads that don't believe, be my guest!!!! You'll hear his name often if you bet big on the numbers, he's called SEVEN OUT! The sad part is the more you chase the more you'll hear his name over and over and over! SEVEN OUT!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Since Aqueduct Casino opened, I have gone three times and lost. There is no coming back from a loss, as the machines will not hit on even a dollar bet. This is the new reality, The city players have their own casino. That lost revenue means the machines will never, ever pay big. Empire Casino will be the antidote to gambling.

The place is a sham. I went for the second time just for a change of pace and it will be the last time. I read several reviews and it all comes down to one point: ALL THE MACHINES ARE CONTROLLED BY A COMPUTER IN ALBANY. The machines are nothing but scratch off lottery tickets including the video poker machines. Example: If you have a winning two pair, straight of flush and you break it up, you will still get the winning payback. The games are a sham. The payback on video poker is a miserable 92%. An 8 ounce cup of beer is $2.50, what a joke. Goodbye Empire City!

If you are on this web page you should already realize that Empire City is not a "true" casino, but a pari-mutuel creation of the New York Lottery.
http://www.americancasinoguide.com/casinos-by-state/new-york-casinos.html

This pari-mutuel venue has no "live" games. Everything is electronic. The bulk of the casino is comprised of a few thousand slot machines on the building's first and second floors. In addition, there are a number of electronic gaming tables that have been added to part of the second floor of the casino. These games include roulette, craps, and -- the just added this month -- baccarat tables. It was the addition of the table games that caught my attention and intrigued me to check the place out. My comments are based on visits to Empire City in September and October of 2011.

CRAPS TABLE NOT AS ADVERTISED
I visited the Empire City website before I headed to the casino. On their craps' page, the casino had a very short explanation of game basics and a graphic of what their craps table looked like.
yonkersraceway.com/uploadedFiles/craps%20how%20to(1).pdf
On the graphic, the FIELD said the casino paid triple on 12, but I noticed that was not the case when I got to Empire City. The payout was only double. I e-mailed the casino to inquire about this, but never got a response from them. Instead, the casino quietly changed the graphic to reflect the correct payout. This may sound like a minor complaint, but this subtle difference doubles the casino's edge on this bet from 2.78% to 5.56%.

CRAPS MACHINE MALFUNCTION
The craps "table" is actually ten individual betting stations all facing a flat screen monitor. The monitor displays the "table". As at a live craps table, the privilege of (in this case electronically) tossing the dice passes around the table dependent on the shooter's ability to make his point.
On one occasion my betting station froze with the shooter trying to make his point. Not wanting to abandon the machine or my investment in it, I stayed at the machine. When nobody seemed to be coming to help, I actively tried to flag someone down for help. It took about twenty minutes to get an attendant who had the authorization to access the machine to help me.
Play went on while my machine was down. My bet was returned. Besides an inconvenience, this event was an annoyance. I had bet the DON'T COME BAR, and the shooter sevened out. My bet would have won.

CRAPS JACKPOT PROCEDURE
At one point while playing the DON'T PASS BAR with double (the max allowed) odds, my bet won and paid $600+. I won't do the math here, but it requires only a $75 bet on DON'T PASS with double odds to find yourself in this situation. With the point at 4 or 10 you are putting $375 at risk to win an additional $225. The machine stopped when I won, and announced I would have to wait for an attendant. This time it only took ten minutes for someone to help me, but I thought that too long.

The attendant printed me a receipt which I had to bring to a redemption window. (No machine in the casino pays out cash. All machines take cash, but only issue tickets which need to be redeemed.) It was annoying that I had to wait for an attendant while play continued. It was a further annoyance that I needed to leave the table and lose my spot, to redeem the receipt in order to be able to play again.

JACKPOTS
A jackpot is any payout of $600 or more paid on a single event (roll, spin, hand) no matter what the odds of the payout. A ticket is printed for you, which you have to bring to a redemption window and wait on line to cash. You must also show photo ID to cash the jackpot payout ticket, and provide Tax ID information. Receipts for roulette seem to be printed automatically. I didn't observe anyone with a jackpot payout in baccarat.

BACCARAT MACHINE BILL JAM
As I mentioned the Baccarat machines are new at the casino, so a few glitches might be expected. On two occasions my cash was not accepted by the machine. The machine took the bill but could not process it. The machine then informed me an attendant would need to be called. I got my bill back without a problem, but again it was not easy to flag down an attendant. A light does illuminate at the machine indicating a problem, but it doesn't appear that anyone pays much attention to it. I gather that there is no central monitor that informs the casino that someone needs help at one of the machines? From their slowness to respond, it certainly appears that way.

BEVERAGE SERVICE
There is waitress service, but it is sparse. Coffee and soda are free. Alcoholic beverages will cost you.
A plastic cup of Guinness ( ~12 ounces) cost $7.50. Other beer is less expensive. When I asked the waitress what brand the already poured brews she carried on her tray was, she told me "beer".

REWARDS
Empire City has a rewards program called Empire Club. One point is rewarded for each $10 bet at a table game. As near as I can figure, each point is worth about 0.5 cents. So to generate $5 in rewards, one would have to wager $10,000 at the tables. The Empire Club card can be used at the roulette and baccarat tables, but there is no provision to allow its use at the craps table. Rewards are doubled for the slots from what I wrote above.

I also found the card readers at both the game tables and promotion kiosks are not very good at recognizing Empire Club cards. It takes a few attempts to get them to acknowledge the card.

SUMMARY
With a profit of over $50 million per month, Empire City is clearly a successful venture.
nylottery.org/wps/wcm/connect/0c527d8044bea24d8b5f8b3b1ada7a32/empire_city_report.pdf?MOD=AJPERES
I believe, though, it is only successful due to its easy accessibility to the over 10 million people in the New York City metro area. It is not someplace someone would drive a few hours to get to. Atlantic City and the Connecticut casinos are both but a few hours' drive from New York. Unless there is some promotion well worth my while, I do not plan to return to Empire City.

I'd been going there weekly since they opened in 2006, although I stopped going about a year ago. In the beginning you used to be able to win a little money. I, personally, never won a jackpot but a few of my friends did and I witnessed people winning jackpots on more than one occasion. The last year that I went (2009) was it for me. They had to have done something to the machines because you couldn't hit anything any more. All they do is suck your money in and give you nothing in return. First I thought it was just me but standing outside smoking I would here other people saying the same thing. I have some friends that still go up there (shame on them) and complain about it every time so I guess nothing has changed. As for the promotions - what a joke. Does anyone remember the scam involving employees fixing the promotions so their friends could win? 3 people were brought up on charges (you can google it and read the whole story). If they can fix that, they can fix the machines too. The FBI should really investigate them. Customer service is another laugh. Most of the floor people and food personnel are a bunch of lazy rude kids that want to get paid but not do anything for it. Nasty, nasty nasty. Not to mention the clientele that goes there. It turned into a real sleazy place. As for me, I've been saving my money for Aqueduct's opening later this month. I live in Queens so there's no tolls, traffic or additional gas for me. If they follows Empire's lead they will have their machines loose in the beginning to draw in the people but if they're smart they won't tighten them up as much as Empire did and they'll keep their customers. I see Empire City losing at lot of business real soon (Long Island, Queens and Brooklyn to be sure) and no one deserves it more than them.

Its extremely frustrating when you go to a casino 3 times a month only to keep losing over and over again. My husband, friends, and I have been going consistently for two years. You would think one of us would win big! That has never happened. We are not big spenders compared to others I see there by no means, but it's fun to win a little more than what you brought with you or lose it all. As far as comps are concerned we each get $5 a week, big deal. We have played in AC with the same amount of money, and have gotten gorgeous rooms for two nights, meals, and play all for free. The quality of people there also leaves a lot to be desired. New York State is very smart because people are using their disability, social security, welfare, and unemployment checks to play with and the state is getting back all the money they just shelled out. I'm surprised that they don't honor food stamps. Most people there playing are minorities and people that can't speak English. I've been there all different days and times and it never changes. My recommendation would be not to even bother going. We've stopped and will wait for the new casino to open in Queens, so that we can save gas and bridge money. I'd much rather go to AC and get all my comps or better yet go to the gorgeous Mohegan Sun Casino. As far as the food goes, the food court has better food than the buffet, which I wouldn't feed to my dog. You never get comps for food accept $5 voucher, which can only be used by the people whose name it's under, regardless of whether it's your husband or not. The $5 doesn't go very far even in the food court, so you will have to spend more money on food. All and all Yonkers is not only depressing but a big waste of time and effort!!

This place use to be good with their machines paying out, no more! I go to empire about two times a month and play the slots. All the good slot machines that hit jackpots are gone replaced with crappy tight money sucking machines. I use to see lots of people hit on the machines, no more. If I see someone hitting for $100.00 its alot. Don't bother going here, I'm just about done with this place.

On June 2, 2011, we entered the casino at 7:30 PM, and this is what happened between 11:00-11:30 PM: We played MAX bet $4.00 dollars a pop on the Genie Lamp slot, and guess what happened we got the bonus and it even re-triggered, and all we won was $34.00 dollars in the spin. We made sure we had witnesses to observe this scam and just we know who is controlling the slot machines.

It still amazes me that people will still visit this casino knowing or not knowing that the video poker machines are false and not true poker machines as they are in Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Connecticut. The video poker machines are controlled by a central computer system in Albany and are in actuality, a scratch off lottery ticket. The payback percentage is 92% and yet people rush off to play a system that is destined to make you a LOSER. I simply do not understand it. The machines are programmed to pay off a certain number of winners. The games are a farce; a scam. Although, one may be playing a 9/6 Jacks or Better machine, which with correct strategy would pay 99.5%; these machines do not pay that at all. I simply do not understand why New York State went in this direction and not use the RANDOM NUMBER GENERATOR machines that are used in the States previously mentioned. If they did, I would probably return but not the way they are featured now as VIDEO LOTTERY TERMINALS. STAY AWAY!

Alan, comments of 12-19-10 and I completely agree that the video poker machines are NOT TRUE video poker machines as in AC, Conn, or PA. The Empire City and also the Monticello Raceway machines are what is called, VIDEO LOTTERY TERMINALS, all controlled by a central computer in Albany. These machines do not use a RANDOM NUMBER GENERATOR. The payoff for VLT'S is around 92% so these machines are LOSERS! I went once and have never returned. The same applies to regular slot machines. These machines are described as PULL TAB or SCRATCH OFFS. The 9/6 VP machine that Alan speaks about is a FARCE. Why NYS chose to go this route is nuts. Instead of encouraging the public to install and play true VP machines, the public is going elsewhere. However, there are still people that will go there for the convenience even though they know they aren't true.

The slots here stink and are a scam. Huge variety but they never or rarely pay out. 100 lions bonus games show diamonds galore in the free spins, which are wild cards, but the machines zoom through them so fast, they don't give a payout when they are supposed to. They are fixed! The clientele is scary looking! Many appear to be non-English speaking lower income clientele, very rough looking. Two guys were fighting over a machine, threatening each other and the security guard did nothing but observe. I got up and walked away from the vicinity. Also, recently during a gas odor scare, patrons refused to leave their machines for their own safety. Guards were understaffed. Thank god it turned out to be nothing. Customer Service? On one visit, a promotions booth by the back entrance closed and the attendant made some handicapped patrons walk all the way over to the booth at the other end of the casino just to get a replacement card; he was rude. They should have promotions booths/customer service stations closer together. Problem with your machine? You have to wait at least 20 minutes for a slot attendant to show up. Senior Citizen nights: these are a total joke. The 'free' items they give you are cheap and worthless and break or wear out in no time. For 3 weeks in a row, they gave out plastic shopping bags. The kiosks in the back lobby are always broken. You can be on line for a half hour. As soon as Seniors get off the bus, they head to those machines for their coupons, and the machines are either broken or slow. The ATM's charge close to $5.00 to get your own money out - ridiculous. The Food Court service is slow, the food inferior, the cleanliness leaves much to be desired. The buses from the parking lots to the entrances are too small and people are crammed in like sardines. Boycott this place people, boycott it. Just because you don't have to drive to NJ or CT for a casino is no reason to come here. Its a horrible place.

I saw the casino on my way home from visiting friends in Nanuet, so I figured I'd stop in and take a look. I play a lot of 9/6 Jacks or Better in Atlantic City and thought I heard something about their video poker being a pull tab game, but I wasn't sure. The machines looked normal, but I was surprised to see a 9/6 game that was even better because it paid 60 instead of 50 for a straight flush. If this was a legitimate game with randomly generated cards it would have a return of 99.65% and I'd probably be a regular customer, being that it's non-smoking and a lot closer for me than Atlantic City. But I was very suspicious because I figured a stand alone casino not near any competition would probably pay 7-5, or 8-5 at best. I first asked a slot attendant and he didn't know, so I found a guy in a suit who confirmed they were pull tabs. I figured it was secret but I asked him if he knew what the return was. He said he didn't know but I could find out on the NYS lottery website, but this wasn't true. When I got home and checked, all I could find out was the overall hold percentage for all games, which varies but is a little over 8%.

Anyway, I got a measly $5 for signing up for the slot club, so I had to play something. No bonus or anything for having a Harrah's Diamond Card. I was wondering if the video roulette could be legitimate even with pull tabs. I figured I could bet red and black at the same time and the disadvantage (5.26% assuming no ties on 0) would most likely be less than anything else. I thought that maybe they can't really fix the hold percentage because you have many people playing with a single central wheel. Unfortunately the game I saw was full and it was a $5 minimum bet. I asked if there was something with a lower minimum but the lowest was $2, so I wasn't going to bother with my $5 free play coupon.

I found a 10 cent video poker machine so I played 10 hands at 50 cents/hand. I won $1.50 so I ended up with a total of $6.50, and I'm taking that and never going back. It's too bad they don't have a legitimate game, because I'd love to have a much shorter trip, no tolls (I use the free bridges), and especially no smoking. This could be a good option for someone who normally plays slot machines, because the casino's hols percentage could be about the same as everywhere else. For a slot machine it wouldn't really matter if the game was pull tab or RNG. But a pull tab video poker game is really a slot machine with no skill involved, and this is very deceptive to someone who might think they are playing something reasonable.

Empire City is not a place for serious gamblers but if you want to spend a few hours in a nice smoke free atmosphere then Empire City at Yonkers Raceway is an OK place. The buffet is awful but the food court is adequate to good and and there is a nice assortment of machines. I always use Valet parking because it is a pain in the you know what to use the general free parking and then have to wait to be transported to the casino. If you are looking to play slots big time then you want
Downtown Las Vegas (Fremont Street)

The worst in gambling return, not substantial money if you win, 10 dollar by valet parking is too much and The Rusell buffet is lack of the most simple plate, no selection better to get a sandwich in the snack bar.

I have to agree with all the comments on the site. I live near Empire and used to go to Empire quite regularly. I have been going there to gamble since they opened and the most I walk out of the casino with was $200. My mother hit a $6000 when they first opened. That was the last time she hit. I walked around one day watching people play and I notice they have one or two jackpots for a couple thousand dollars and random people win a few hundred. Which is the extent of money I see being paid out at Empire. They sent me free slot play in the mail for two months and I never received anything else. I went to customer service and they told me some BS about it being the mailman. So, now I get the free slot play but no free food coupon. I personally think the slots are set up for certain people to win. Although I enjoy the atmosphere I don't go much and when I do I don't gamble because I get NOTHING IN RETURN. I would not recommend this casino unless they loosen their slots. The payouts are horrible and jackpots or hundred dollar winners are far and few in between. You can try it if you want but I am sure you will wind up like the rest of us BROKE AND FRUSTRATED!

Very sad to see that this casino did not work out. I play heavy so my MVP status should give me more than the perks they handed out. $30 per month for food (2 lousy sandwiches in the food court) and $40 per week in cash. No VIP service for valet parking, no VIP service for restaurants or food, no special anything. I am lumped into the same group that spends $100 at the Casino and my play should give me a bit more. The slot hosts have all left, fed up with the Casino, the employees don’t care about the customers and the casino payout is worthless, not even fun. I have decided to stay away completely and instead make the drive to AC. My money is appreciated there, the payouts are better and I am entertained instead of ripped off. Gambling is gambling and it should be a form of entertainment ONLY but when I feel like there is no entertainment value for my money then you’ll get none of mine.
Too bad!

The user comments below concerning the video poker games are correct. The cards are not dealt randomly so the VP paytable means nothing. Unfortunately, there are plenty of machines with full-pay paytables and there is nothing posted on the machines (or anywhere else in the casino) saying that the machines are not random (not nice!!!)

However, it's a pretty good place if you bet the horses. Promotions and giveaways are frequent. Food is decent and reasonably priced.

Entertainment is great and mostly free for card members. For Seniors there are free oldies groups on Wednesdays, as well as a gift and five dollars for playing. On EVERY Thursday there is a free tribute show. (Elton John, Cher, Neil Diamond, etc) See entertainment monthly schedule. Email promotions, ALL year round live harness racing, free parking, food court, etc. Wish other casinos gave so much away.

My husband & I were at the casino this past Sunday 8/8/10. We went to eat at the buffet & were very dissappointed with the food. This is not the first time, but we decided to give it one more try.

The flank steak was tough, the rice dish had uncooked rice mixed in & the tortellini was very salty. To top it off the coffee was not hot. I treated a friend of mine to the lunch buffet in June & the General Tso chicken was so tough you could not chew it. I will not eat there again, it's like throwing money away.

The slot machines are controlled by computers located in the closets that feed info to a main bank of computers in Albany New York. They are geared for you to lose. The place should be taken over by the FEDS. There are rare payouts but most of all the people playing slots will lose and many lose big time because the payouts are paltry.

The strategy is as follows. You put $10 or $20 in the slot machine. As you win in the first 10 pulls, there is noise from the slot machine that is paying you off. The problem is that if you bet let's say $3, the slot pays you off $1.50. You think you are winning but you're actually losing.

You bet $5 bucks and again the sound of winning comes from the slot machine. Only problem though is you won $3, so you actually lost $2. ETC,ETC,ETC..........

This is not at all like Atlantic City. This is only one casino so no alcohol drinks are free. The only promo is $5 credit when you join Empire Promotions. Many people I spoke with have continually lost money. Their casino consists of only slot machines and they are all programmed by computer. Payoffs are extremely rare. So rare that you could find a diamond walking down the street before you ever get a decent payoff.

The odds are in the house favor. If you like or love losing money you should go here. If you want better odds go to Atlantic City on a weekday.

I bought the getaway package for $15.75 from Grand Central to go to the casino after work one night. I planned to stay from 6:30 pm to 8:30 pm. The metro north train arrived in Fleetwood station around 15 minutes late. In my package is included two free shuttle bus tickets to and from Empire City.

Well, guess what? When I got off the train I searched all over the street for the bus to EC. There was none! I called the promotion desk who told me "oh yeah if the train is late the bus won't wait." She said to take a cab. So I paid for a package deal which is advertised by metro north as one of their fabulous fun getaways only to be stranded. I was not going to pay $10 for a cab to EC so I turned back and went to Grand Central and filed a claim and for my money back.

I went to the casino for the first time on Saturday night. The shuttle buses were timely and the drivers were very pleasant.
My experience was that the casino is very busy on the weekend but the machines are loose and I walked away a winner. I will absolutely return.

This casino is a highway robbery. Don't bother to go there, it will take everything you have got and the services are terrible. I lost $2,000 in one night and in two hours playing a machine that is max bet $2.50. I have always walked away a loser and I will not return.

I guess I went there because it is close to me but the drive elsewhere is better than this place.

Be advised, yonkers is not a good place to try your luck!!!!

Yonkers Raceway is only 30 minutes from my house so it's a lot closer than Atlantic City. I lose whenever I play. It's not full of senior citizens. A lot of young people, 18 years old.

I find the slots tight. I won only one time $4,500 with numerous losses.

I enjoy watching the trotters at the restaurant overlooking the track. I ordered everything on the menu for 3 people and the bill was only $135. Try that at the white tablecloth restaurant in AC. Your bill will be $400. Unfortunately, this place will never get any rewards for service. "We are all out of bread" can be heard by the waiters.

Some one has finally agreed that the VP is not real. No RANDOM NUMBER GENERATOR in machine. All controlled by central computer in Albany. Larry is correct. The VP machines in Connecticut, Atlantic City and Pennsylvania operated via an RNG which is the type of machine one should only play.
The machines in Yonkers and Monticello are VIDEO LOTTERY TERMINALS. STAY AWAY!

The poker games are not real. It doesn't matter what you hold. The winners and losers are pre-programmed.

Luigi is correct. I found out from this site that the poker machines are in fact of the "random" variety. I will never play them again.

If I go back it will only be for the horses. I never even knew that "random poker machines" existed. With that said I hit for $1,000 there.

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I returned from day trip on Thursday, 30 July 2009 and it appears I will NOT return. It is easy to enter and exit but I met with a lot of traffic. Be that as it may, I only play video poker and there were not a sufficient quantity.

They may advertise 5,500 machines but perhaps 80% are slots. I agree with Ed, noisy, crammed and crowded. I also hate the fact that there are no free drinks, like AC. I was curious about the poker machines with a tag attached stating "IGT".

I asked a slot attendant and could not get a straight answer as to, "Are these poker machines operated via a RANDOM NUMBER GENERATOR or by a central computer in Albany".

I do agree with Ed that the Jacks/Better are Full Pay, 9/6 and the Deuces Wild have payback of 99.42% which is very good, however, if they are VIDEO LOTTERY TERMINALS then it is all moot.

I have read in various casino books that playing VIDEO LOTTERY TERMINALS is like playing a lottery scratch off. On some of the poker machines a GENIE would appear and change the five card layout; never saw this before and this leads me to believe they are VIDEO LOTTERY TERMINALS and not true poker machines such as AC.

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