The Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board held two initial public hearings last week in the local communities of the first licensed Category 4 satellite casinos, or mini-casinos, in Western Pennsylvania. The board heard details from representatives of Mount Airy Casino Resort on what will be called Mount Airy Pittsburgh in Big Beaver, and from Stadium Casino on its Live! Casino in Hempfield Township.
Category 4 casinos are limited to 750 slot machines and 40 table games, and must be linked to one of the state’s 13 current land-based licensees. Last year’s gaming expansion law accounts for a maximum of 10 satellite casinos. With the legalization of sports betting, licensees also are permitted to open sports books in the mini-casinos.
The first meeting was held in Darlington, Big Beaver Township, on the Mount Airy project. On Tuesday afternoon, the PGCB met in the social room of the Big Beaver Borough Fire Station 14 on Mount Airy Pittsburgh, which Mount Airy won with a bid of more than $21 million in the second Category 4 auction in February.
Mount Airy representatives told the board the facility will offer the maximum number of machines and tables—750 slots and 30 table games at opening, with the option to add 10 tables at a later date through a separate application to the board. The casino also will offer a sports book.
If approved, Mount Airy would build on an undeveloped site near the intersection of the Pennsylvania Turnpike and the Beaver Valley Expressway. The project, which it hopes to finish in 2020, will also include a hotel and convention center.
On Wednesday morning, the board met in the Hempfield Township Municipal Building in Greensburg to hear details of the $150 million Live! Casino project planned by Stadium Casino, LLC, the operating company owned by Baltimore-based Cordish Companies. Stadium, which is building Philadelphia’s second casino in the city’s sports stadium district, originally was a partnership of Cordish and Greenwood Gaming, owner of the Parx casino in Bensalem, but Greenwood sold its interest, leaving Cordish the sole owner.
Representatives of Stadium described a 100,000-square-foot property in the former space of Bon-Ton, a shuttered anchor department store in the Westmoreland Mall. The satellite casino will offer 750 slots and 30 table games initially. Additional regulatory approval is required after opening to add 10 tables for the maximum 40.
Gaming board members questioned Station officials on the timeline of the satellite facility in relation to its construction of what will be Philadelphia Live! casino in the stadium district, which the board has ruled must be built at the same time. The board recently granted the operator an extension until 2020 to open that facility, which will be a Category 2 stand-alone casino.
“A week ago, we, the board gave you a time extension, for the slots at the Category 2,” said board member Sean Logan, according to Pennbets.com. “A week in construction planning is a year long, so has anything changed in that week positive or negative on your 2, whether it’s permits approved or denied?”
“We continue to prosecute the Category 2, the permits are in the final stages with the city of Philadelphia,” a Stadium representative responded. “Every day there is work being done.”
