Under Construction: Mount Airy Falters, Malls Now Make Way For Mini-Casinos In PA

Mini-casinos seemed so promising back in October 2017 when gaming expansion legislation authorized licenses for 10 satellite casinos.

Just think: The creation of 10 smaller casinos scattered throughout the state would mean millions in new license auction fees for Pennsylvania, additional gambling revenue streams and more casino jobs.

Implicit in the mini-casino legislation, there would then be a total of 23 brick-and-mortar gambling facilities. That would have been 13 regular casinos or racinos plus the 10 new mini-casinos. That would equate to retail gambling being an easy drive for nearly every citizen in Pennsylvania.

But it didn’t work out that way with mini-casinos.

According to a PlayPennsylvania.com article, and at most, there will be four new mini-casinos when all is done, but only three are sure things. Auction bidding began in January 2018.

For a time, mini-casinos looked like a financial juggernaut with $114 million in license fees collected, including more than $50 million for one site in Eastern PA (York County), and more than $40 million for a site in Westmoreland County. [READ MORE]

Both of those expensive sites are mall rehabs.

But all has not gone according to plan, even for those with mini-casino licenses.

ABOVE: The highlighted location for the proposed Mount Airy Casino in Big Beaver Borough

In November, Mount Airy Casino Resort had the plug pulled by the PGCB on a plan for a satellite casino in Beaver County. Mount Airy had spent more than $21 million to buy the license.

The company claimed it could not find adequate financing and regulators killed the project. [READ MORE]

But a local news outlet reported the continuing presence of former Mount Airy owner Louis DeNaples, considered a mob associate ordered to distance himself from Mount Airy, was a factor in the project’s failure. DeNaples had tried unsuccessfully to have the ban against him doing business with Mount Airy lifted.

The Mount Airy mini-casino project was at least six months behind its announced schedule. Mount Airy is out about $5.3 million on the mini-casino bid. The property paid $21.2 million for the Category 4 license application and only gets 75% back.

The proposed location, 100 acres of land less than 10 miles from Ellwood City now sits idle.

Promised jobs for Beaver and neighboring Lawrence counties won’t materialize. Plans for the property included 750 slot machines, 30 table games, and three restaurants.

That leaves PA with just three mini-casino projects with work underway. Hollywood Casino at Penn National Race Course is the big player in the mini-casino landscape, with two projects underway simultaneously.

The company paid more than $50 million for a license to rehab an empty mall space near York. Significant construction is ongoing and the target for work completion is early October.

Penn doubled down on mini-casinos, creating a southern perimeter for its flagship Hollywood Casino, which is not far from Harrisburg. It made a second successful auction bid for a site in Caernarvon, Berks County, a flea-speck township off the PA Turnpike.

The location is better-known for the ZIP code and exit name, Morgantown. The ZIP code sprawls through three counties, and multiple municipalities, some of which had opted out of hosting a mini-casino. Approval hearings were contentious because residents thought the opt-out status of the municipality shielded them.

Penn paid more than $7.5 million for the license. Construction on the site is ongoing and should finish after the mall rehab has launched.

source: www.playpennsylvania.com/mini-casino-update-three-projects-ongoing/