Sands Bethlehem has filed plans with the Pennsylvania city for an expansion estimated at around million that will give the state’s table games revenue leader the state’s largest casino floor.
Sands CEO Mark Juliano declined to comment, according to news reports last week, but the plans show a nearly 100,000-square-foot expansion across multiple levels that includes more than 35,570 square feet of new gaming space.
The plans did not state a price but the resort’s 2015 audit released earlier in September lists a “table games expansion” at $40 million and described the project’s status in August as “plans submitted”.
The expansion will need approval from the state Gaming Control Board, and a special approval on top of that if the number of table games were to exceed the state’s maximum of 250. With 237 tables already on the floor, the most in the state, Sands would have to petition to add more than 13. No other casino has more than 184.
“Normally the executive director can sign off on a small expansion or the addition of maybe 10 tables,” said board spokesman Richard McGarvey. “But any expansion of this level would need full board approval. No one has ever asked to go above the maximum before.”
But no casino expansion request has ever been denied either, he noted.
Sands’ tables generated $228 million last year, the most in Pennsylvania by far, exceeding second-place Parx Casino in Bucks County by $73 million.
An expansion certainly would be welcomed by city leaders, who use more than $9 million in Sands fees to balance the city budget and are eager to see the casino add amenities that would attract more people to a city that relies heavily on tourists.
Mayor Robert Donchez said he is aware of the plan and the city will work with Sands.
“I think it’s extremely important to make it more of a destination center,” he said.
