The new Sands casino resort in Pennsylvania is making the most of the Christmas season. Built at the old Bethlehem Steel plant the casino has plenty of its own flashing lights, with 3,250 slot machines, and the ‘Christmas City’ in eastern Pennsylvania continues to attract the visitors with its downtown Christmas display and the seasonal bazaar known as Christkindlmarkt. As this will be the first Christmas the casino has seen, no one yet knows whether the annual influx of visitors to Bethlehem will find their way to the casino before departing.

Sands Bethlehem has yet to be completed – construction on a convention centre, shopping mall and 300-room hotel has been delayed by Las Vegas Sands because the recession has caused financing problems. The casino also is under-performing from the initial estimates of US$255 per slot machine per day, making just over US$190. Next year the company will pay US$4.6 million in real estate taxes, a figure disappointing local leaders who had hoped for more.

Bethlehem City Council President Robert Donchez was "a little disappointed" but says that once the table games are up and more revenue is coming and the project is completed, the assessment will go up. A bill to legalise table games at Pennsylvania’s slots casinos is nearing a vote in the House. The measure needs Senate approval but it is expected that table games will be licensed and operating next year. (E-12.08.09)

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