ANDREW M. SEDER
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Of all the applicants in search of a Category 3 casino license, the one chosen by the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board on Thursday poses the least amount of competition to Northeast Pennsylvania’s three venues.
The board, by a 6-1 vote, selected Nemacolin Woodlands Resort in Fayette County, southwestern Pennsylvania, for the state’s last available “resort” license.
The Category 3 permit allows 600 slot machines and, if the board approves it separately, 50 table games. The state’s combined licensing fee is $12.5 million, and a hefty cut of gambling profits also goes to reduce local taxes, underwrite civic construction projects, subsidize the horse-racing industry and aid volunteer firefighting squads.
Besides Nemacolin, the state considered applications from three other venues: the Fernwood Hotel & Resort in Bushkill, the Eisenhower Conference Center near Gettysburg and a Holiday Inn in suburban Harrisburg.
Fernwood, in Eastern Monroe County, just south of the Pike County line, was viewed by some area casinos as unwanted and unneeded competition.
In November, the Sands Casino Resort in Bethlehem and Mohegan Sun at Pocono Downs in Plains Township contested the application of The Bushkill Group Inc. The closest casino to the proposed Fernwood site, Mount Airy Resort near Mount Pocono, also in Monroe County, did not contest it.
Bobby Soper, chief executive officer of Mohegan Sun at Pocono Downs, said the reason his facility filed a request to be heard as a challenger to the Bushkill request was “very simple.”
“We have the smallest market in the state,” Soper said. “We already have two casinos. Any additional facilities will cannibalize existing revenues. To locate another casino in Northeast Pennsylvania will have an adverse impact.”
On Thursday, moments after the board’s vote, Soper said he was in agreement with the decision not to grant a license to Fernwood. “I think it was the logical decision not to put another casino in a saturated and small market.”
As to Nemacolin, he called it “a nice resort” and noted it was the one applicant that would have “the least impact on our business.”
“Fernwood would be the only property that could have potentially had any impact on us,” Soper said.
Of the four applicants, the Gettysburg site drew the most opposition and many of those opponents packed into the meeting room at the Pennsylvania State Museum on Thursday.
The Gettysburg site generated opposition from some Civil War preservationists who worried that gambling would sully the area’s historic character and dishonor the sacrifice of soldiers who died there.
Opponents of the Gettysburg site who attended the meeting Thursday hugged and cried after the vote.
Nemacolin’s founder, 84 Lumber Chief Executive Officer Joe Hardy, said he felt like he won the Super Bowl.
“We’re thrilled,” Hardy said after board members voted. “I mean, I’d like to jump up in the air. It’s something that’s really going to make Nemacolin. We have all these amenities and that ties in beautifully.”
Nemacolin is about 50 miles southeast of Pittsburgh in the Laurel Highlands. It offers 335 rooms, suites, cabins or luxury homes, 31,000-square-feet of meeting and banquet facilities, and numerous guest amenities including golf, cross country skiing, an antique car museum, a shooting academy, wildlife habitats, mountain bike trails, an equestrian center, a spa and fitness center, and five swimming pools. In addition, Nemacolin has 14 retail stores in a 55,000 square foot shopping arcade.
Hardy and his daughter are well-known in Harrisburg as generous donors to political campaigns in the past, although the law precludes casino owners from making such contributions.
St. Louis-based Isle of Capri Casinos Inc. will build and operate the $50 million project.
“This was a challenging decision, but when all was said and done the Board felt the Nemacolin project best fit the intent of the Gaming Act and was best overall for Pennsylvania,” said board Chairman Gregory C. Fajt. “This decision was the result of a tremendous amount of work by our staff and many citizens of the Commonwealth who took the time to provide the board with their views both pro and con on each of the projects.”
Pennsylvania’s gambling regulators have now awarded licenses to 13 applicants since 2006 and revoked one of them that was slated for Philadelphia. Ten casinos are operating. In addition to Nemacolin, the board previously awarded the only other available Category 3 license to the Valley Forge Convention Center.
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