PA Gaming Control Board Releases Estimates From Financial Suitability Task Force Report

HARRISBURG: The Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board today posted on its web site revenue projections for all six of the Category 1 applicants from a report of the Financial Suitability Task Force. To view the report, visit www.pgcb.state.pa.us, click on the information box “Public Input Hearings, Local Impact Reports, and Diversity Plans” and choose “Financial Suitability Task Force Estimates”.

“We want to provide the public with as much information as possible to best understand the decision-making of this Board,” said Anne Neeb, Executive Director of the Gaming Control Board. “We are extremely pleased with the work of the Financial Suitability Task Force in providing these revenue projections.”

Neeb stressed that the revenue projections from the Task Force are just one piece required to determine the financial suitability of the applicants. She cautioned that these figures are to be looked at individually and should not be grouped to try and estimate what total gaming revenues may be in the Commonwealth a number of years down the road.

“To compile estimate projections for each applicant, the Task Force had to include any potential competition. This means possible revenues from applicants that may not be ultimately awarded a license and go into operation were still used to create competition,” Neeb stated. “This results in, essentially, more competition than would actually occur statewide. So, simply adding the Task Force figures would produce low and incorrect assumptions of total statewide gaming revenue.”

The bulk of the report, paid for by the applicants and used by the Gaming Control Board to compare against other projections, is protected from public disclosure by law as proprietary information.