Pennsylvania’s Greenwood Gaming and Baltimore’s Cordish Companies, partners in Philadelphia’s Stadium Casino project—previously known as Philly Live!—may be preparing to sell their partnered license for the city’s second casino, according to sources in multiple publications.
“Sources are telling us that the Philly Live! casino project is dead in the water,” tweeted Roger Gros, publisher of Global Gaming Business magazine. “The two owners, Cordish and Parx, will ask permission from the PA gaming board to sell the license. No confirmation yet, but very reliable source.”
The PlayPennsylvania.com news site also reported the sale rumors, citing confirmation from Chris Krafcik of Eilers & Krejcik Gaming.
The $50 million fee for the Category 2 casino license is only one cost to be considered by any entity that would purchase the project. The partnership has pumped twice that into the property. In addition to the casino license, the Stadium Casino partnership has turned over $40.1 million to the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board for a mini-casino license, and has identified a former Sears store in Westmoreland Mall near Derry, Pennsylvania as the location for the satellite facility; and has shelled out a $10 million fee to offer full online gaming.
Some have estimated that the mini-casino at the mall will open before the main parent facility, as construction is only at the beginning in Philadelphia and the mini-casino is planned for an existing building.
Any buyer presumably would be required to take on the satellite-casino and online gaming licenses attached to the primary license, unless Stadium withdraws its supplemental applications prior to selling the primary license.
The gaming news sites could only speculate on the reasons the Stadium partnership could pull out of the market. The Online Poker Report suggests Greenwood is concerned the Stadium project would draw customers away from its Parx property in the Philadelphia suburb of Bensalem, and the difficult tax environment in Pennsylvania as possible reasons for Cordish to pull out.
