No formal applications filed for last license
As Pennsylvania lawmakers debate new proposals from online gaming to slot machines at airports and bars, one land-based casino license remains idle. And so far, there is little interest in pursuing that last license.
The state’s 12 currently operating casinos, plus one in the planning stages for Philadelphia, represent all but one of the licenses created by the law. The last Category 1 license, designated for a racetrack casino, was tied up for 12 years as successive applicants to build a racino in Lawrence County, in the western part of the state, failed to secure financing.
Category 1 applicants must first secure a harness racing license from the state Horse Racing Commission. Once the harness license is secured, applicants must apply separately for the casino license from the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board.
The racing commission voted early this year to seek new applicants for the license previously designated for the Lawrence County project. Although the commission set June as the application deadline, there have been no applications or formal contact with the racing commission concerning the license. There has been only one developer that has publicly announced that he will seek the last casino license, and that is Gettysburg businessman David LeVan, who plans to make his third attempt to build a casino near the Gettysburg National Military Park and its hallowed battlefield ground.
LeVan is facing the same opposition from historians and preservationists he did in his first two bids, made in 2005 an 2010. Once again, the opposition is led by No Casino Gettysburg, a grassroots group headed by local couple James and Susan Paddock. The group formed petition drives to defeat Levan’s first two proposals, and already has 7,000 signatures on an online petition opposing the latest project, saying the casino would cheapen the hallowed ground of the Gettysburg battlefield.
LeVan, 70, is the retired CEO of Conrail, Inc. and owner of Battlefield Harley-Davidson in Gettysburg. His new proposal, to be called Mason-Dixon Downs, would be located just over three miles from the historic battlefield.
In an interview with the Meadville Tribune, James Paddock of No Casino Gettysburg noted that the proposed casino would be located on the road that leads to the battlefield area where the climactic third-day battles occurred in 1863. The organization’s website adds that the local region does not need a casino, pointing out that Adams County, which includes Gettysburg and the sites proposed by LeVan, has grown economically at a much higher rate than several counties that currently host land-based casinos.
The Washington, D.C.-based National Parks Conservation Association shares this opinion. “With over 1 million families, school groups and other visitors drawn to the battlefield each year, Gettysburg National Military Park has already proven to be an enduring part of the community,” said a statement on the national conservation group’s website. “Approving a horse race track and casino would forever change this treasured place.”
LeVan defended his proposal in a statement to the Tribune, noting that the casino would be farther from the battlefield than other casinos near Pennsylvania historic sites, including Valley Forge National Park. He also disputed claims on the No Casino Gettysburg site that repeats debunked myths that casinos cause more cost in social problems than the revenue they produce.
“We’ve had a period of time to watch the gaming industry,” LeVan said. “The concerns about crime, traffic and water simply haven’t come to fruition. What we have seen are local communities benefiting from thousands of new jobs, millions of dollars in grants from the gaming industry and millions of dollars for local businesses.”
James Simpson, chairman of the Standardbred Breeders Association, who is advising LeVan on particulars of setting up a horse track, speculated in an interview with the newspaper that other potential applicants for the license may be “spooked” by the prospect of shelling out the cost while the status of other gaming expansion in the state is being debated by the legislature.
Applicants for a harness racing license must pay a nonrefundable $50,000 up front, and another $50,000 fee when the application is approved. After that, the fee for a license to operate slot machines is $50 million and the table-game license fee is $16.5 million.
