Islandia VLT casino to house 1,000 slot machines

Suffolk County’s Off-Track Betting casino in Islandia will sprawl across 40,000 square feet of space and will accommodate 1,000 video lottery terminals, according to officials with operator Delaware North.

During a media tour of the unfinished facility Thursday, Delaware North project manager Chuck Kilroy also said the Islandia Marriott hotel will be rechristened with a yet-to-be-announced name, since the hotel will no longer be a Marriott property once the facility opens.

A hospitality and gaming conglomerate based in Buffalo, Delaware North purchased the Islandia hotel last August and will lease the space to the Suffolk County OTB Corp., which hopes the new casino will bring the struggling agency out of debt.

The first phase of the casino with 250 video lottery terminals is expected to open in February, with the remaining machines and space expected to be finished by summer, Kilroy said.

The casino is being built in the Marriott’s old conference space and pool area. The opening of the casino — originally slated for this month — was delayed because of construction issues, and Kilroy said incorporating a casino into an existing building was complicated by infrastructure not found in blueprints.

“Once we started construction, our guys had to take a look and see what could we do, how could we work around it,” he said, gesturing at a crossbeam.

“Retrofitting and going into an existing building where you don’t know what the existing construction was, it’s more of a challenge,” said Frank Piccirillo, vice president of Axis Construction Corp., which is the general contractor on the job.

The new casino and hotel will not have any new restaurants but will offer an expanded menu in the existing Bistro 58, with items including a Long Island-themed burger and ahi tuna on fried wontons.

The casino floors will feature grab-and-go food and beverage vendors, and a new central bar anchoring the main space on the second floor above the lobby.

In addition to the video slots, the casino will have electronic table games of craps, blackjack, baccarat and roulette and OTB kiosks for betting on horse races.

The casino still requires approvals from the state Gaming Commission and a certificate of occupancy from the Village of Islandia before it opens. Opponents have filed a lawsuit in state Supreme Court in Riverhead to block it.

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