The Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board said Friday that it
will conduct a public meeting Nov. 18 to award a license for Philadelphia's
second casino.
The meeting - which comes two years after the application
deadline and in a regional casino landscape that has changed dramatically even
since hearings on the license were completed in January - is scheduled to begin
at 1 p.m. in Room 201 of the Convention Center in Center City.
Several observers close to the process said they believe
that the license will be awarded to Live! Philadelphia, a joint venture of
Cordish Cos. of Baltimore and Greenwood Gaming & Entertainment Inc., which
owns Parx Casino in Bensalem.
Their proposed $425 million casino with 2,000 slot
machines and 125 table games would be built at the corner of Packer Avenue and
Darien Street in South Philadelphia, at the site of the Holiday Inn near the
stadium complex.
Executives at Parx and Cordish, which owns Maryland Live!
south of Baltimore and is applying for a casino license in New York, could not
be reached for comment Friday.
Another of the four applicants still hoped to emerge as
the winner.
"The Provence team greatly respects the thoroughness
of the gaming board's deliberations," said Frank Keel, spokesman for
developer Bart Blatstein's proposal.
"It's encouraging to hear that a decision may be
near. Philadelphia needs and deserves a second casino. Today's rumors to the
contrary, we remain hopeful that The Provence Resort & Casino will be
chosen," Keel said.
The two remaining applicants are developer Ken
Goldenberg's Market8 at Eighth and Market Streets in Center City and produce
magnate Joseph G. Procacci's Casino Revolution at Front Street and Pattison
Avenue.
Separately, SugarHouse Casino has renewed its bid to
block the award of a second casino license in Philadelphia.
In a filing Thursday, the company asked the Gaming
Control Board to reopen the record to consider "post-December 2013
information, data, statistics, commentary, argument, and other evidence"
that is relevant to the decision.
"There is no fact, not a single fact that supports
that this city or this region needs another casino," Wendy Hamilton,
SugarHouse's general manager, said in an interview.
"From what I hear, they are about to make this
decision with almost a year's worth of information not part of the
record," said Hamilton, refering primarly to the closure of four casinos
in Atlantic City.
Source: Philly.com
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