Sands Casino Resort Bethlehem is going ahead with a million expansion that will add restaurants, slot machines, table games and a new poker room to the property, casino officials confirmed to the Allentown Morning Call.
The expansion plan had been called into question by comments from Sheldon Adelson, chairman of Sands parent company Las Vegas Sands Corp. Adelson had commented to media that going forward with new investment in the Bethlehem casino was conditioned on the outcome of the New Jersey ballot referendum to create land-based casinos in New Jersey. He complained that North Jersey casinos would severely impact his high-roller business from New York, a prime feeder market for the casino.
With the ballot question in New Jersey soundly defeated, casino officials told the newspaper last week that the construction plan is definitely on.
Plans for Sands’ “North Expansion” entail a two-story, 100,000-square-foot addition on the casino’s north side, to house 380 more slot machines, 81 more tables and two restaurants—a noodle bar and possibly the area’s first Cheesecake Factory.
The slot machines will bring the casino’s total to a state-high 3,543. A $40 million dedicated poker room with 30 new tables will move the casino’s poker operation off the middle of the main gaming floor, freeing up space for expanded offerings there. A second hotel and convention center also is on the drawing board.
The new project will bring Sands’ investment in south Bethlehem to nearly $1 billion, while creating the largest gaming floor among the state’s 12 casinos. The additional 81 table games will boost the casino’s total to more than 300—which would require an exemption from the gaming board to a state 250-table limit.
Sands CEO Mark Juliano told the Morning Call that construction could begin as early as January, but cautioned that the project is pending approval by the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board, which would have to grant the exemption to the 250-table requirement.
