Philadelphia To Become Largest City in Nation With Casino

There were celebrities, politically connected investors, national developers, and 13 casino giants who applied for licenses in the state of Pennsylvania, and on Wednesday the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board awarded five licenses from all the applicants.

The move clears the way for five stand alone slot-parlors and will make Philadelphia the largest city in the nation to operate a casino.

There was only one license awarde in Pittsburgh, and that went to Detroit based casino developer Don H. Barden. He plans to build the casino in the city's stadium district.

Philadelphia's riverfront will be the site of the other four parlors and the operators of those parlors will be goups led by billionaire developer Neil G. Blum, and Connecticut based Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation.

Among the losers in the process were Donuld Trump, and St. Louis based Isle of Capri Casinos Inc., who proposed to build a stadium to buid an arena for the Penguins.

The board ended up awarding 11 licenses, but 6 of them went to existing state horse-racing tracks.

As of now, the state has two slot parlors open with the other 11 on the way soon.

December 21, 2006
Posted By Vincent Tapoglia III
Staff Editor, CasinoGamblingWeb.com    Previous Page | Internet Gambling | Top Online Casinos | Submit News!