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The Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board will hold a public meeting Nov. 18 to award a license for Philadelphia's second casino.

The scheduling of the meeting seems to assure that Philadelphia's second license will be issued to one of four applicants, all of whom submitted their plans two years ago.

The meeting — set to unfold in a regional casino landscape that has changed dramatically since hearings on the license were completed in January — is scheduled to begin at 1 p.m. at the Philadelphia Convention Center.

Several observers close to the process believe the license would be awarded to Live! Hotel & Casino, a joint venture of Cordish Cos. of Baltimore and Greenwood Gaming & Entertainment Inc., which owns Parx Casino in Bensalem, the state's highest-grossing casino.

Two sources, one with an extensive political background and the other highly knowledgeable about the casino industry and its workings, indicated that Live! would win the second license. Neither would speak on the record.

That proposed $425 million casino with 2,000 slot machines and 125 table games would be built at Packer Avenue and Darien Street in South Philadelphia — at the site of the Holiday Inn near the sports complex.

Executives at Parx and Cordish, which owns Maryland Live! near Baltimore and is applying for a casino license in New York, either could not be reached for comment Friday or declined to comment.

Former Gov. Ed Rendell, who advocated for and signed the state's casino law, said he had heard the same talk about the casino planned for the stadium complex. He said the gaming board should slow down on the decision.

"At this point, they shouldn't do anything until they get the thoughts of Gov.-elect Wolf," Rendell said. "I'm not so sure we should have an additional casino in Philadelphia, and that's not my decision. But the new governor should get some input."

Jeffrey Sheridan, spokesman for Tom Wolf, said Wolf had no immediate comment.

Mayor Michael Nutter's administration has advocated for the second casino as an important source of jobs and tax revenue, and has expressed a preference for a location in Center City rather than South Philadelphia.

"The mayor looks forward to a decision by the board, and he is hopeful that it will confirm the selection of a second casino for the city," Nutter spokesman Mark McDonald said.

Not everyone is on board with adding a second casino in Philadelphia. Legislators from Bucks, Delaware and Montgomery counties said Friday that a second casino could drain customers, revenues, and maybe jobs from existing gaming sites in the region.

"Too much of a good thing is a bad idea," said state Rep. Thaddeus Kirkland, a Democrat whose Chester-based district includes Harrah's Philadelphia.

"I certainly would feel better if there weren't another one," said Joseph DiGirolamo, the Republican mayor of Bensalem, home of Parx Casino.

State Sen. Daylin Leach, D-Montgomery, whose district includes Valley Forge Casino Resort, said: "I'm not sure how many licenses in this area is enough and how many is too many. It's something we should all be concerned about."

Dominic Pileggi, a Delaware County Republican and the state Senate majority leader, said he believes that new casinos "are competing for the same dollars."

"Most of the Philadelphia-area facilities are drawing from the same pool of potential gamblers," he said. "And one of the factors in where the gamblers decide to gamble is how far the facility is from their home."

And Pileggi didn't hesitate to describe what he envisioned as a worst-case scenario for his home district.

"We become like Atlantic City," he said. "That's my biggest fear."

Four casinos have closed in Atlantic City so far this year.

Despite the rush of rumors about Cordish's winning the license — originally issued to the Foxwoods group for a casino on the South Philadelphia waterfront and revoked in December 2010 — no formal decision has been made.

However, the scheduling of the meeting makes it likely that the board has reached a decision under the "qualified majority standard," which requires that the board's four legislative appointees must agree on a choice and that at least one of the three gubernatorial appointees must join them.

At least one of the four applicants still hoped to emerge as the winner.

"The Provence team greatly respects the thoroughness of the gaming board's deliberations," said Frank Keel, spokesman for developer Bart Blatstein's proposal for the former Philadelphia Inquirer building on North Broad Street.

"It's encouraging to hear that a decision may be near. Philadelphia needs and deserves a second casino. Today's rumors to the contrary, we remain hopeful that the Provence Resort & Casino will be chosen," Keel said.

The two other proposals are developer Ken Goldenberg's Market8 at Eighth and Market Streets in Center City, and produce magnate Joseph G. Procacci's Casino Revolution at Front Street and Pattison Avenue.

A spokesman for Procacci's company, PHL Local Gaming L.L.C., referred to a community meeting planned for Wednesday at Stella Maris Church in opposition to Live!

"If that community opposition to the Live! Philadelphia is valid, then that would mean that three of the four applicants have significant local opposition," said A. Bruce Crawley. "PHL Local Gaming, by contrast, has no significant local community opposition and [has] the endorsement of the leading civic organization in the area," he said.

Separately, SugarHouse Casino renewed its bid to block the awarding of a second casino license in Philadelphia, "asking for a full, open, and transparent hearing to consider the dramatically changed conditions in the Philadelphia market."

The gaming board closed the record on a second Philadelphia casino license in February. Applicants are not allowed to submit additional information unless their financial condition changes.

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