From yesterday the public files relating to the four operator licence applications for the remaining Category 3 resort licence are available for review at the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board’s Office of Hearings and Appeals in Harrisburg. The first of the two Category 3 licences was awarded to Valley Forge Resort Casino on April 8, 2009. An applicant granted a Category 3 licence is permitted to operate up to 600 slot machines and a maximum of 50 table games at an existing resort hotel.

In order to be eligible, the resort hotel must have no fewer than 275 guest rooms under common ownership, be more than 15 linear miles from any other Pennsylvania-licensed slot machine casino, and already offer substantial year-round recreational guest amenities on their premises. Public input hearings for the four projects have been scheduled between 30 August and 8 September.

The four companies that submitted applications are Penn Harris Gaming for the Holiday Inn Harrisburg West in Hampden Township, Cumberland County; Mason-Dixon Resorts for Eisenhower Hotel, Conference Centre and Resort in Cumberland Township, Adams County; Woodlands Fayette for Nemacolin Woodlands Resort in Wharton Township, Fayette County; and Bushkill Group for Fernwood Hotel and Resort in Middle Smithfield Township, Monroe County. The first three applications met an April 7 deadline in a special 90-day period established by the Pennsylvania Legislature. The Bushkill Group had made an application back in 2007.

Reports outlining the impact that the four casino projects would have in their local area, along with a plan to meet diversity goals in their hiring, are available for viewing on the PGCB web site. PGCB Executive Director Kevin O’Toole says the reports continue the Board’s efforts to again conduct an open and transparent licensing process. “With the Board’s local public input hearings on applications starting August 30th, it is important for citizens to be familiar with what the four Category 3 applicants are proposing. Posting the applicants’ local impact and diversity reports on the Board’s web site will help citizens better understand each proposal and strengthen their presentations at the public input hearings.”

There are already nearly 25,000 slot machines operating in Pennsylvania and July tax revenue was up 18% to a record US$116 million, helped by the start of table games at the previously slots only casinos. O’Toole said, “It is too early to gauge a trend, but Pennsylvania casinos have indicated they have experienced a significant increase in the number of visitors since table games were rolled out in mid-July.” Table figures for the nine casinos will not be available until later this month. (E-08.10.10)

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