New York, Sept. 22 -- The last roll of the dice for a Manhattan casino is over. After months of pitched hearings and furious lobbying, a state-chartered Community Advisory Committee voted to block Freedom Plaza, an East Midtown resort that would have planted a gaming floor and glassy towers near the United Nations. With that decision, every active bid in the borough is now dead, and New York City's high-stakes contest for up to three downstate casino licenses shifts decisively to the outer boroughs and the suburbs. For the record of decision and initial coverage, see the Manhattan casino proposal rejected.

The Freedom Plaza defeat capped a bruising week in which committees also rejected a Times Square partnership led by SL Green and Caes...