A Pennsylvania newspaper report claims that Las Vegas Sands CEO Sheldon Adelson is making his planned million investment in improvements in the operator’s Sands Bethlehem resort contingent on Pennsylvania lawmakers defeating online gaming in the state.
The Pennsylvania legislature is in fact close to passing online gaming legislation, and both chambers passed a budget that includes online gaming revenues in its earning projections. The Allentown Morning Call, a newspaper near the Sands property in Pennsylvania’s Lehigh Valley, reported last week that Adelson’s planned reinvestment in Sands Bethlehem “apparently won’t take place if Pennsylvania legalizes online gambling.”
The report goes on to say the reinvestment will not occur if a referendum in New Jersey authorizes casinos in the north of the state.
The report cited contradictory statements made this summer by Mark Juliano, the CEO of Bethlehem Sands, concerning the company’s potential reaction to the legalization of iGaming. “We’re certainly not going to continue to make a commitment to reinvest if they follow through with this,” Juliano said of Pennsylvania online gaming in a June statement—following it with the sentence, “But would it keep us from investing? Probably not.”
Meanwhile, another part of the bill to legalize internet gaming in the state Senate is drawing fire from casinos. A portion of the Senate bill would permit land-based casino licensees to set up satellite locations across the state including up to 250 slot machines each.
