The owners of SugarHouse Casino have formally objected to
the issuance of a second casino license in Philadelphia, arguing that the
region's gambling market will be tapped out after their planned $155 million
expansion.
In documents filed Friday with the Pennsylvania Gaming
Control Board, SugarHouse's owners also raised questions about the eligibility
of certain applicants for the license.
If granted, the petition to intervene would allow
SugarHouse, which employs 1,500 full- and part-time workers, to make its case
during licensing hearings scheduled to start Jan. 28.
SugarHouse's preliminary statement, filed by Atlantic City
lawyer John M. Donnelly, painted a bleak future for the gambling industry if a
second Philadelphia casino opened.
It would mean thousands more slot machines would serve a
static pool of gamblers. "Revenues will be split, resources will be
strained, capital improvements will be postponed, and employees will lose their
jobs as casinos cut costs," the filing said.
To support the argument that another casino in the
Philadelphia market would hurt existing operations, SugarHouse cited data from
Cincinnati, where Horseshoe Casino opened in March, joining three already
there.
Total gambling revenue for the Cincinnati market climbed 8.1
percent in the eight months after Horseshoe opened compared with the same
period the year before, but revenue for the casinos in the market before
Horseshoe fell 27.7 percent, SugarHouse said.
A second front in the SugarHouse petition is a challenge to
the eligibility of certain applicants. The petition questioned whether Penn
National Gaming Inc., which is involved in Hollywood Casino Philadelphia, and
Greenwood Gaming & Entertainment Inc., a partner in the Live! Hotel &
Casino, are ineligible because they own racetrack casinos.
Parx owner Greenwood Gaming declined to comment.
A Penn National spokesman said the company was
"confident in our proposal and that the ownership structure put forth
satisfies the statutes."
Pennsylvania law restricts ownership to, in the simplest
terms, one casino and a third of another. SugarHouse also said it wants to
explore whether applicants are in overall compliance with that rule.
Several of the current applicants for the second city casino
license already own part or all of a casino. They include Penn National,
Greenwood Gaming, and Ira Lubert, a partner in Valley Forge Casino, Rivers
Casino, and the proposed Market8.
Separately from Friday's SugarHouse action, minority
investors in SugarHouse have challenged the gaming board's authority to reissue
a second license in the city.
Those investors also had sued SugarHouse's majority owner to
block the SugarHouse expansion.
Source: Philly.com
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