Operator News
US – Penn National wins fifth Category 4 casino in Lancaster County
By Phil - 6 April 2018
The Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board has announced that Mountainview Thoroughbred Racing Association, which operates Hollywood Casino at Penn National Race Course in Dauphin County, has gained the award in the fifth auction for a Category 4 casino.
Mountainview Thoroughbred Racing Association, LLC’s bid of $7,500,003 secured a location for placement of a Category 4 casino in a 15-mile radius area with a center point in West Cocalico Township in Lancaster County.
“We draw a lot of business to Hollywood Casino from the Reading and Lancaster areas, and this location will allow us to better protect our market while allowing us to penetrate further into the more populous areas in the western Philadelphia environs,” Penn National said.
The Category 4 location, selected , serves only as the center point for calculating the 15-mile radius in which the Category 4 facility must be located. In addition, a Category 4 facility may not be located within a municipality that has opted out of the placement of a Category 4 facility.
This was the second Category 4 award for Mountainview Thoroughbred Racing Association, LLC which was low bidder at an auction held on January 10, 2018 with a bid of $50,100,000. The center of that Category 4 location is in the Borough of Yoe in York County.
Mountainview Thoroughbred Racing Association, LLC is required to pay the bid price to the Commonwealth within two business days, and then has up to six months to submit an application for the Category 4 Slot Machine License.
The application will contain the precise site of the proposed Category 4 casino, as well as detailed plans and information concerning the proposed building plan, amenities, employment projections and other related information. Once the application is received and determined to be complete, the Board will post public information about the project on its website for interested persons to review.
A Category 4 Slot Machine License permits the entity to operate between 300 and 750 slot machines. The entity could also petition for permission to initially operate up to 30 table games for an additional fee of $2.5 million with the capability of adding an additional 10 tables games after its first year of operation.
The results of the three other auctions will see Stadium Casino 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.
Mount Airy #1, which operates the Mount Airy Casino Resort, was the highest bidder for the second auction 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 Inc., which operates the Parx Casino in Bucks County, was the awarded bidder of the third with a bid of $8,111,000. The center of that Category 4 location is in South Newton Township in Cumberland County.
This latest auction marked the first in the “subsequent round” of auctions initiated after the Board received no bidders at the last auction held during the “initial round”. Per the Board’s procedures announced prior to the start of the Category 4 auction process, “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 subsequent round of auctions, the two holders of the Category 3 Slot Machine Licenses at 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 been the winner at one or more Category 4 Casino Auctions.
Subsequent auctions are planned every two weeks in order to award 10 available Category 4 licenses.
The Gaming Control Board will hold a subsequent round if all 10 available licenses are not auctioned off in the initial round. If that occurs, successful bidders in the initial round could compete for additional Category 4 casino locations in the subsequent rounds.
