The Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board last week awarded a Category 4 casino license to Parx Casino, owned by Greenwood Gaming, for the new Parx mini-casino in Shippensburg. The operator says the casino will be open by the end of the year.
Parx Shippensburg will be Pennsylvania’s 17th casino, and the fourth Category 4 facility. Category 4 casinos were created by the state’s 2017 gaming expansion law. Originally required to be owned by a current Category 1 (racino) or Category 2 (stand-alone resort) license, Category 4 casinos, commonly called “mini-casinos,” are restricted to 750 slot machines and 30 table games at opening, with an additional 10 tables added by petition after opening.
The casino will be built at Shippen Towne Center in a space that is half of a former Lowe’s store. It will open with 500 slot machines, 48 electronic table games, an in-casino sports bar, and an all-ages restaurant accessible from the casino’s main lobby but with no direct access to the casino floor.
Parx has said the other half of the former Lowe’s location is targeted for a non-gaming entertainment development, but the space will remain shuttered at the casino’s opening.
Parx Shippensburg will be a non-smoking facility, but the operator is planning an outdoor “smoking pad” adjacent to the casino floor.
Parx Director of Human Resources Susan Eckert told the Penn Live news site the Shippensburg project will create about 100 permanent full-time jobs with an average annual salary of about $48,700, plus 100 additional part-time or seasonal positions. It is expected to generate about $1.8 million annually in host community payments to be split between Shippensburg Township and Cumberland County, the site said.
The board’s vote ends a four-year period since Greenwood won the right to the license with an $8.1 million bid, a period when the operator failed in attempts to locate the casino in Carlisle and South Middleton, rejected in both cases by local votes.
In other Greenwood Gaming news, the operator revealed plans to open a 300-room hotel to the main Parx Casino in Bensalem.
The news was revealed in an internal email to Parx employees obtained by the PlayPennsylvania news site. The message said the operator is starting the process of building a hotel at Parx, and is soliciting bids from local and national architects.
“Right now we are contemplating a 300-room hotel with a bar, restaurant, night club, pool/spa complex and some modular meeting space,” the email reads, according to PlayPennsylvania. “This should take about 18-24 months.”
PlayPennsylvania cited a source that said the email was from fall 2021, which puts the timeline at 16-18 months at this point.
