Pennsylvania held its second mini-casino auction on Wednesday, and the winner was Stadium Casino LLC with a bid of $40.1 million.
Stadium Casino LLC, a joint venture between The Cordish Companies and Greenwood Gaming & Entertainment, selected the coordinates of Derry Township, Westmoreland County, for its mini-casino, effectively reserving a 15-mile radius around that spot. Derry is about 15 miles east of Greensburg, which is roughly a 40-minute drive from Pittsburgh.
Stadium Casino is the entity behind the plan to build the $600 million Live! Hotel & Casino Philadelphia, which is slated to open sometime in 2020 in the stadium district of South Philadelphia. While Baltimore-based Cordish has casinos across the country, Greenwood operates Parx Casino in Bensalem Township, Bucks County.
After the bid was announced, Travis Lamb, chief financial officer of Cordish Global Gaming, said the company’s location proposal would be centered near Greensburg. The location was selected because of its proximity to Pittsburgh and its growing housing stock, which makes it a viable market for slot machines and table games, he said.
“We are very pleased,” Lamb said of winning. “We look at this as a great opportunity for Stadium Casino LLC to grow in the state of Pennsylvania.”
The company also does not have any qualms about building two casinos simultaneously in the state, Lamb added.
Stadium Casino bid only $10 million less than the owners of Hollywood Casino at Penn National Race Course in Dauphin County during the first auction two weeks ago. In that auction, Penn National won with a bid of $50.1 million, nearly seven times greater than the minimum bid of $7.5 million. Penn National’s mini-casino will be near Yoe in York County, allowing the company to protect Hollywood Casino’s customer base to the south and potentially attract gamblers from nearby Maryland.
The gambling expansion law, signed by Gov. Tom Wolf in October and wrapped up in lawsuits, allows for the creation of 10 mini-casinos across the state. Each mini-casino can have up to 750 slot machines. In addition, auction winners have the option of paying $2.5 million more for a table games license, which would allow them to have 30 to 40 table games in their satellite facility.
On Wednesday, a total of four bids were presented and casinos’ representatives were present for the bid announcement. Aside from Stadium Casino, it’s unknown which companies were behind the other bids.
However, Sands Casino Resort Bethlehem President and Chief Operating Officer Brian Carr attended the auction. While leaving the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board’s Harrisburg office, Carr declined to say whether Sands had submitted a bid or talk about the company’s strategy moving forward in the bidding process. Carr said he was there to watch.
“We are always happy to work with the state in any venture,” Carr said. “We are observing the process and looking for opportunity.”
If Sands does want a mini-casino, however, it will have more chances in the months ahead. Eight more public auctions are scheduled, between Feb. 7 and May 16, and the state’s existing casino operators have first dibs on the new licenses.
The gambling law estimated $100 million could be generated if all 10 slot and table games licenses were sold at the minimum asking price of $7.5 million and $2.5 million, respectively. Through two auctions, the winning bids have totaled more than $90 million.
This story will be updated.
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