Two bidders found out last week what handicappers have been saying all along about the race for three downstate casino licenses in New York: Winning approval from a local advisory board might be the hardest step.

A proposed Times Square casino — backed by rapper Jay-Z — and another on Manhattan’s West Side were voted down Wednesday by local screening panels. That kills those projects and leaves six remaining competitors for licenses slated to be awarded this year.

Even some of them might face similar problems, based on public hearings over the summer. The key question is how many bidders will be left standing by Sept. 30 — the deadline for securing local approval.

"What if only two get through?" said Bennett Liebman, a government law professor at Albany Law School of Union University

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