Pennsylvania’s planned Hollywood Casino York, Penn National Gaming’s mini-casino in the York Galleria mall, cleared an important hurdle last week when Springettsbury Township supervisors voted to approve the project.
Mini-casinos, created under Pennsylvania’s 2017 gaming expansion law, are satellite casinos connected to a current casino licensee that are limited to 750 slot machines and an initial 30 table games, with the tables maxing out at 40 upon supplemental request. Penn’s York facility was the first one approved, after the operator bid an industry-high $50 million for the license.
The township supervisors unanimously agreed that Penn had provided adequate redevelopment plans describing improvements, upgrades and changes that would be made in what was the mall’s former Sears anchor store.
The casino plans an initial 500 slot machines and 24 table games, eventually increasing to the maximum allowable offerings. The mini-casino is expected to generate 200 permanent jobs with an estimated average salary of $45,000, and to generate an estimated $1 million per year in new taxes for the township. The planned opening is in 2020.
The project has several more approvals to attain, including the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board’s final approval.
Meanwhile, Sandy Township in west-central Pennsylvania has become the first municipality in the state to reverse its original decision to ban Category 4 satellite “mini-casinos.”
Mini-casinos, created under Pennsylvania’s 2017 gaming expansion law, are satellite casinos connected to a current casino licensee that are limited to 750 slot machines and an initial 30 table games, with the tables maxing out at 40 upon supplemental request. Under the law, local municipalities were given 60 days to “opt out” of the program through a simple resolution. They can vote to opt back in at any time.
Sandy Township was one of more than 1,000 of Pennsylvania’s 2,560 municipalities to opt out of the mini-casino program, voting to ban the satellite facilities just after the law was passed. Last week, it became the first to reverse its original decision, its board of supervisors voting 3-2 to opt back in.
At the public hearing leading to the vote, township supervisors commented that the benefits of job creation and new tax revenue outweighed the potential negative consequences of a new gambling venue.
“It brings a lot of jobs to the community,” said Supervisor Kevin Salandra. “It helps the tax base. You know, unfortunately, it’s a personal decision, whether the people want to partake in going to a casino or not. So, I don’t feel that my job as a supervisor is to legislate things like that. If it’s there, you can choose to go or not to go.”
