Sbarro, Chick-fil-A, Hot Topic … and a mini-casino.

Believe it or not, this week Stadium Casino, a joint venture between Greenwood Gaming & Entertainment and The Cordish Companies, announced that their mini-casino will be located inside Westmoreland Mall, a 1.2 million-square-foot behemoth of a retail complex in Greensburg, PA.

Westmoreland County is in line to see a Pennsylvania mini-casino. A $40.1 million bid by Stadium Casino LLC – the highest of four offers – was selected during the state’s second auction. Kim Ward, R-Hempfield, said Tuesday she was briefed by officials with Stadium Casino LLC, the Maryland-based company that in January purchased a $40.1 million license to open one of 10 mini casinos in Pennsylvania. Stadium Casino officials on Tuesday did not respond to requests for comment. Demolition for the new mini casino has started inside the former Bon-Ton store at Westmoreland Mall, according to Patrick Karnash, Hempfield’s planning coordinator. Plans for the proposed $131. One mini-casino is being built near the city of Reading, along the Pennsylvania Turnpike, while two are sited in southcentral Pennsylvania and another is being built in Westmoreland County, in western Pennsylvania. All told, the state has reaped about $111 million in bids. The gaming operator was among the first in Pennsylvania to submit a winning bid for a satellite casino license, in this case for $40.1 million, which will apparently put 750 slot machines and 30.

According to a press release from Stadium, the company sees the opportunity as an exciting one for everyone involved. That includes CBL Properties, the company who owns the mall.

“The property is ideally situated in the Region, with excellent infrastructure and road networks in place. The synergy of this new gaming and entertainment facility with the existing retail and dining amenities in the property and surrounding area will be tremendous,” Stadium partner Joe Weinberg said in the release.

Mini Casino Westmoreland County Pa

Mini-casino will bring jobs, rejuvenation to Westmoreland County

Whether communities love them or hate them, casinos of any size bring jobs and buzz to the area in which they emerge.

State Senator Kim Ward is well aware of this. She offered up the following quote in the aforementioned press release:

“I’ve worked for nine years to expand gaming to allow ancillary casinos, so it’s gratifying to see this finally coming to fruition. This project will bring a sizeable increase in our tax base, a significant number of full-time jobs, and will help revitalize the Westmoreland Mall complex.”

The press release noted that the mini-casino should create 600 jobs and “millions in revenue.”It’s a welcomed spark considering the casino will be filling the space left by soon-to-be-closed department store Bon-Ton.

The Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board will have to review the property plans before a construction timeline can be set forth.

Community voices split on satellite benefits

An article from Pittsburgh’s WTAE shows that opinions from the community can be a bit fragmented.

Some love the idea of a casino. However, others would rather see something different take up the Bon-Ton space. Here are few quotes from Westmoreland County residents about the forthcoming satellite casino:

• “I think it’s a good thing for gamblers. I don’t know that it’s a good thing for the community.”
• “I think whenever something new comes, it can cause a little apprehension. But if you look statewide at how these casinos are doing, they’re not crime-ridden.” (Senator Ward)
• “I would love to see a Trader Joe’s or a Whole Foods go into a space like that, as opposed to a casino.”

These types of opinions are likely to surface as the state’s other four satellite casino license holders reveal the locations of their mini-casinos.

Five total satellites in the works

At the time of publishing, the following casinos have a satellite license:

• Parx (Cumberland County)
• Mount Airy (Lawrence County)
• Hollywood Casino at Penn National (Lancaster County, York County)

PGCB regulations state that these satellite properties can house a maximum of 750 slot machines and 30 table games. There will be a 50 percent tax on slots revenue that will go to the state.

Casinos will also pay an additional four percent on slots revenue. The local township and local county will split that revenue. The same 50-50 split applies to an additional two percent tax on table games.

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — Pennsylvania will again seek to auction a mini-casino license on Sept. 2, under orders from state lawmakers in search of cash for a treasury starved of tax collections from shutdowns to contain the coronavirus.

The Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board on Wednesday scheduled the auction after budget legislation that passed in May required another auction.

Owners of the state’s licensed casinos are eligible to bid, although many of them never even bid in seven prior auctions. The bidding is under an aggressive 2017 state law to expand gambling, including authorizing auctions of 10 mini-casino licenses that allow the holder to operate up to 750 slot machines and up to 40 table games.

Bidders must submit a prospective site for the casino that cannot come within 40 miles of another casino location.

Minimum bids are set at $7.5 million, and the state tax rate on casino revenue is among the nation’s highest.

Meanwhile, exclusion zones around the 17 existing and proposed casino sites have rendered Pennsylvania’s largest metropolitan areas off-limits. That leaves bidders with a choice of rural northern Pennsylvania, a stretch along the Ohio border between Pittsburgh and Erie, and a handful of smaller cities, including Altoona, Williamsport and State College.

On top of that, coronavirus shutdowns have kept Pennsylvania’s casinos closed for much of the last four months, and slot-machine play — the dominant money-maker — was off by about 25%, or almost $7 billion, in the 11 months through June, according to the latest state statistics.

The state received bids in five auctions in 2018, but interest petered out in the sixth auction and another auction ordered by lawmakers last year drew no bids.

Mini Casino Westmoreland County Parcel

None of the mini-casinos have opened yet and one successful bidder, the owners of Mount Airy Casino Resort in the Pocono Mountains, saw regulators reject their proposed mini-casino after acknowledging that they couldn’t finance the project.

One mini-casino is being built near the city of Reading, along the Pennsylvania Turnpike, while two are sited in southcentral Pennsylvania and another is being built in Westmoreland County, in western Pennsylvania. All told, the state has reaped about $111 million in bids.

With 12 casinos operating, Pennsylvania was the nation’s No. 2 state for commercial casino revenue, behind Nevada, at $3.4 billion in 2019, according to American Gaming Association figures. It was No. 1 in tax revenue from casino gambling last year at $1.5 billion.

Mini Casino Westmoreland County Pa Property Tax

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Mini Casino Westmoreland County Pa Recorder Of Deeds

Follow Marc Levy on Twitter at www.twitter.com/timelywriter.