Pennsylvania casino operators expressed optimism about a return of revenues in the wake of the Covid-19 crisis, and warned of cannibalization of industry revenues by unlicensed so-called “skill” gaming machines proliferating around the state.
The comments came at a meeting of the Pennsylvania House Gaming Oversight Committee into the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic on the state’s casino industry.
Adrian King, an attorney representing the state’s casino licensees, told the committee that the state’s gaming industry will “return itself to the position that it has been since its inception, which is, quite frankly, a tax-generating machine. The best in the United States. A golden goose.” Representatives of Cordish Companies heralded the two casinos the operator opened in the midst of the pandemic, and other operators looked forward to new Category 4 satellite casinos opening within the next year.
According to CDC Gaming Reports, Joe Billhimer, the executive vice president in charge of Cordish’s two Pennsylvania properties, heralded the combined $850 million the company spent to open Live! Casino Pittsburgh in December and Live! Casino & Hotel Philadelphia last month. Dan Ihm, vice president and general manager of Hollywood Casino at Penn National Race Course, outlined that operator’s plan to spend $170 million on two satellite facilities.
Kathy McCracken, GM of Wind Creek Bethlehem, said the company will break ground this year on a $155 million hotel, and Parx Casino CEO Eric Hauser outlined a plan for a $70 million satellite facility in Shippensburg.
However, the operators cited lawmakers’ plans to consider legalizing and licensing up to 20,000 facilities offering unregistered so-called “skill games,” as well as VGTs at bars and restaurants, as a threat to the continued health of the industry.
“It would send a bad message to the business community and beyond if the legislators consider changing the rules on operators at this point,” Billhimer told the panel.
“Customers and revenues do not grow merely because we want them to or because there’s another form of gambling available,” Rivers Pittsburgh General Manager Bud Green told the committee “We’re at a saturation point in Pennsylvania, and other forms of distributed gaming will cannibalize your (tax) revenues.”
