The final casino license available in Pennsylvania is up for grabs next week when the Pennsylvania Gambling Control Board meets on November 18 to decide who wins the second Philadelphia license. But it’s not a given that any project will be awarded the license because of concerns of market saturation.
Four casinos already operate in Pennsylvania’s southeast corner, one in the city and three in the surrounding suburbs. All the existing casinos have urged the board to decline to issue the license because the market is already saturated.
SugarHouse, the casino already operating within the city, warns that an Atlantic City like “implosion” could gut the state’s casino industry should the license be awarded.
“If this second license is issued, it’s bad for everybody. It’s bad for us, it’s bad for our vendors, it’s bad for our employees and it’s bad for most of our competitors,” Wendy Hamilton, general manager of SugarHouse, told the Associated Press. “We are operating in a difficult environment. The thought of adding another mouth at the table is very, very scary.”
In fact, five proposals were narrowed to four in June when Penn National abandoned its plans to build a Hollywood Casino in South Philadelphia, citing market conditions.
Of the four remaining projects, two are in Center City Philadelphia and two others in South Philadelphia near the city’s sports stadiums complex.
