Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board Announces Philadelphia Casino Suitability Hearing Schedule

HARRISBURG: The Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board today announced the schedule of January’s public suitability hearings in Philadelphia for each of the applicants for the remaining casino license in the City of Philadelphia.

Each of the hearings, in which the order was selected at random, is scheduled in 4 hour blocks beginning on January 28, 2014. All hearings will be held in Ballroom A of the Pennsylvania Convention Center in Philadelphia. The public is invited to attend and observe the hearings which will also be streamed live from the Board’s web site.

The hearing schedule is as follows:

Tuesday, January 28, 2014 from 9:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. - PA Gaming Ventures, LLC (Hollywood Casino Philadelphia) with proposed location at 700 Packer Avenue
Tuesday, January 28, 2014 from 2:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. - Tower Entertainment, LLC (The Provence) with proposed location at 400 North Broad Street
Wednesday, January 29, 2014 from 9:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. - Market 8 Associates (Casino Philadelphia) with proposed location at 8th and Market Streets
Wednesday, January 29, 2014 from 2:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. - PHL Local Gaming, LLC (Casino Revolution) with proposed location at 3333 South Front Street
Thursday, January 30, 2014 from 9:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. - Stadium Casino, LLC (Live! Hotel and Casino) with proposed location at 900 Packer Avenue

The hearings will provide the Board with an opportunity to hear directly from the applicants on their suitability to gain a Category 2 (Stand-Alone) license, and why their project is better than the other applicants.

At the hearing, the Board members will receive evidence about each applicant’s character, operational and financial suitability, diversity plans, community impact, plans for the prevention of compulsive gaming and other issues. That information will become part of the evidentiary record as will information gathered by the PGCB’s Bureaus of Investigations and Enforcement and Licensing, along with public input gathered earlier through both the public input hearings held earlier this year in Philadelphia and written comments received from the public and elected officials. (NOTE: The written comment period is still open until December 31, 2013).

After the suitability hearings are completed and once the evidentiary record is closed, the Board can consider an award of this license.

About the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board:

The Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board was established in 2004 with the passage of Act 71, also known as the Race Horse Development and Gaming Act. Pennsylvania’s first new state agency in nearly 30 years, the Gaming Control Board is tasked to oversee all aspects of the state’s casino industry. The 12 casinos in operation all offer both slot machine and table game gambling, employ over 16,000 people, and collectively generate an average of $4 million per day in tax revenue. A portion of that money is used for property tax reduction to all Pennsylvania homeowners; provide funds to the Commonwealth’s horse racing industry, fire companies, a statewide water and sewer project grant program, and the state’s General Fund; and, established a new stream of tax revenue to local governments that host casinos for community projects.

A wealth of information about the Gaming Control Board’s regulatory efforts and Pennsylvania’s gaming industry can be found at www.gamingcontrolboard.pa.gov. At this website, visitors can watch Board meetings live or view videos of past meetings, look up future meeting schedules and past meeting transcripts, obtain information on identifying a gambling problem and gaining assistance, access an interactive map of casino locations, request a speaker for their group, along with much more information. You can also follow the agency on Twitter by choosing @PAGamingControl.

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