Two Pennsylvania mini-casino projects drew positive views from local officials last week. Penn National Gaming secured local support when the Caernarvon Township Board of Supervisors voted unanimously to approve Hollywood Casino Morgantown, planned on 35 acres next to an interchange of the Pennsylvania Turnpike at Interstate 176.
Targeted for a winter 2020 opening, the mini-casino is projected to create 250 permanent jobs and pump $94.3 million into the local economy. It will include an 85,000-square-foot casino floor filled with 70 percent penny slots, along with blackjack, craps, a sports book, a 200-seat restaurant and a food court.
“Solicitors are now proceeding to work out the details, including the licensing from the Pennsylvania Gaming Commission,” said Caernarvon Township Administrator and Township Secretary Joan A. Bair, in an interview with MediaNews Group after a public meeting on the project. “At last night’s meeting we had 50 plus people with a lot of new faces.
“The supervisors’ positive attitude for the casino is partially driven by the fact that the township has not raised taxes in 20 years and hopes this new revenue will keep things that way. The state, county and township by law profit from casino revenues.”
“We are still in the investigative steps of the licensing,” said
Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board spokesperson Richard McGarvey in a statement. “This process entails investigating financials, suitable background and any lawsuits held by the Hollywood Casino.”
Meanwhile, plans by Greenwood Gaming for a mini-casino in Shippensburg Township tied to its Parx Casino got a vote of confidence last week from the Cumberland County controller, Al Whitcomb, who wrote a letter to the Pennsylvania Control Board saying he fully supports the casino.
The gaming board is holding a public hearing on the project March 25 in the Shippensburg University Conference Center.
In his letter to the gaming board, Whitcomb said Shippensburg Township “has limited alternative economic development opportunities on the scale proposed for the casino,” which he said would represent a “substantial increase in the township’s, and county’s tax base…
“Siting a mini-casino in Cumberland County will allow a significant amount of gaming dollars to remain here to benefit our own local economy, expand our tax base and, importantly, provide $1.8 million annually initially, or an estimated $20 million in the 10 years after the casino’s opening, to be split between the host municipality (Shippensburg Township) and Cumberland County.”
The controller said the county’s share would be restricted to grants to be spent on projects in the public interest.
“I support keeping more of our residents’ gaming and entertainment dollars here—local—to benefit the taxpayers and residents of Cumberland County,” Whitcomb said.
A separate public hearing will be held at a later date in Harrisburg, where Greenwood Gaming and Entertainment representatives will offer oral arguments and board members can ask additional questions prior to a licensing decision.
Mini-casinos, created by Pennsylvania’s 2017 gaming expansion law, are satellite facilities tied to a current land-based casino licensee, limited to a maximum of 750 slot machines and 40 table games. They were created to fill under-served gaming areas.
