Operator News
US – Pennsylvania’s fifth mini-casino auction fails to generate any interest
By Phil - 12 March 2018
The latest auction for a Category 4 casino in Pennsylvania ended with no bids being received for a Category 4 Casino License, prompting the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board to announce a “subsequent round” of Category 4 Casino Auctions that will begin on March 21, 2018.
The State’s Gaming Law establishes that a “subsequent round” of auctions will be held if all 10 available licenses are not auctioned off in the initial round. The Board’s procedures for the auctions provides, “If at any time there are no required minimum bids made at an initial auction, the Board will consider the initial auctions to be completed,” and thereafter, the Board will schedule the first of any “subsequent auctions.”
In this second round of auctions, the two holders of a Category 3 Slot Machine License (Valley Forge Casino Resort and Lady Luck Casino Nemacolin) may participate in conjunction with all the Category 1 or 2 License holders, even if those holders have already won a Category 4 Casino Auction.
The subsequent round of auctions will start on Wednesday, March 21, 2018 at 10:00 a.m. prior to the start of its Board meeting. The meeting will be held in the PGCB’s Office of Hearings and Appeals located in the Strawberry Square Complex, 2nd Floor (adjacent to the Food Court), Harrisburg.
The Board plans to continue to hold auctions if eligible bidders continue to submit qualified bids which start at $7.5m to reserve a geographic area within which a Category 4 Casino could be placed. The satellite casinos are allowed to operate up to 750 slot machines and 40 table games.
The first four rounds of bidding raised $120m. The first bidding process was won by Mountainview Thoroughbred Racing Association, which operates Hollywood Casino at Penn National Race Course, who was the high bidder with a bid of $50.1m. The center of that Category 4 location is in the Borough of Yoe in York County.
The second went to Stadium Casino, LLC, which holds a Category 2 license and will construct a casino in Philadelphia. It was the high bidder with a bid of $40,100,005. The center of the Category 4 location is in Derry Township in Westmoreland County.
The third went to Mount Airy, which operates the Mount Airy Casino Resort, and was the high bidder with a bid of $21,188,888.88. The center of that Category 4 location is in the City of New Castle in Lawrence County.
Greenwood Gaming and Entertainment, won the fourth. It which operates the Parx Casino in Bucks County, and was the awarded bidder with a bid of $8,111,000. The center of that Category 4 location is in South Newton Township in Cumberland County.
The Commonwealth’s casino industry currently consists of 10 stand-alone and racetrack casinos in operation, along with the two smaller resort casinos.
