Casino mogul Steve Wynn is
not finished with Philadelphia, afterall.
He's looking to hire a director of online gaming products,
to be based here.
On-line gaming isn't legal anywhere in the Commonwealth, but
legislators have begun considering it as a means to get more money into state
coffers. Wednesday, the Senate passed a resolution for a study on weather
Pennsylvania should legalize on-line gaming, as well as other means of keeping
Pennsylvania gaming competitive in a time of increasing competition.
Pennsylvania neighbors New Jersey, Delaware, and just
recently New York have already legalized on-line gaming.
"The group exploring online gaming for Wynn Resorts
happens to be based in Philadelphia," said Wynn spokesman Michael Weaver.
"Their work, and the fact that they live in Philadelphia, has no
relationship to specific gaming activity in Pennsylvania," he said.
Elsewhere in Harrisburg, the Pennsylvania Gaming Control
Board is preparing to award the second Philadelphia license for a physical
casino. Wynn was in the running for that license, but on Nov. 11 announced the
decision to withdraw from consideration. The earliest posting PlanPhilly found
for the director of online products job is dated Nov. 16. (An additional
posting for this job has a later date, so it's possible there were earlier
postings as well.)
“The Director of Products is a mission-critical role
responsible for ensuring that the quality, breadth and depth of our real-money
and social casino products on mobile, tablet and desktop web is second to none
in the market. This position is based out of Philadelphia,” reads the job
description. “Candidate will take a hands-on leadership role in helping to set
the product roadmap for the Company and ensuring the designs, features, and
user-experiences of our products deliver extremely engaging experiences to our
players. Candidate will work with in-house and third party product teams to
help direct and define the various product designs to meet a very high level of
product quality. This will include working with UX and UI designers, product
engineers, product managers and product marketing teams. Candidate will be held
accountable for the final quality of the product and user-experience.”
When asked what impact on-line gaming would have on the
city, Philadelphia Deputy Mayor for Economic Development Alan Greenberger said
it's “intuitively logical that internet gambling would cut into casino
gambling,” but this is clearly “a question for the experts.” Greenberger said
it might be that internet gambling would expand the audience for gambling in
Pennsylvania, without cutting into the physical casino's revenues.
One thing Greenberger is certain of is the state
legislature's commitment to casino gambling. He predicts lawmakers won't expand
gaming here to the internet unless their study conclusively finds it won't hurt
Pennsylvania's existing bricks-and-mortar casinos.
Of Wynn's job announcement, Greenberger speculated that the
basing of the position in Philadelphia might have more to do with proximity to
an international airport, New Jersey, and other states that allow on-line
gaming than on a prediction that the state legislature will bring on-line
gambling here.
Source: Philly.com
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