Greenwood Gaming and Entertainment, Inc. Gains Fourth Category 4 Casino Auction Award

HARRISBURG, Pa., Feb. 22, 2018 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board today announced that Greenwood Gaming and Entertainment, Inc., which operates the Parx Casino in Bucks County, gained the award in the fourth auction in a process that establishes the order in which the winning bidders select a location for a Category 4 casino.

Greenwood Gaming and Entertainment Inc.'s bid amount of $8,111,000 secured a location for placement of a Category 4 casino in a 15-mile radius area with a center point in South Newton Township in Cumberland County.

Greenwood Gaming and Entertainment Inc.'s bid was second highest of the bid amounts submitted the previous day, but high bidder Sands Bethworks Gaming, LLC's 15-mile radius location with a center point in Hempfield Township in Mercer County was later determined invalid because their chosen 15-mile radius intruded into a 15-mile radius area earlier secured by Mount Airy #1, LLC.

Greenwood Gaming and Entertainment, Inc. 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 would permit 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 first three auctions:

• January 10, 2018: Mountainview Thoroughbred Racing Association, LLC, which operates Hollywood Casino at Penn National Race Course, was the high bidder with a bid of $50,100,000. The center of that Category 4 location is in the Borough of Yoe in York County.
• January 24, 2018: Stadium Casino, LLC, which holds a Category 2 license and will construct a casino in Philadelphia, 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.
• February 8, 2018: Mount Airy #1, LLC which operates the Mount Airy Casino Resort, 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.

The Gaming Control Board plans to hold its next public auction on Wednesday, March 7, 2018 at 10:00 a.m. in its Harrisburg Public Hearing Room in Strawberry Square just prior to its regularly scheduled Board meeting. The auction will also be streamed live from the Board's web site. Subsequent auctions are planned every two weeks thereafter on Wednesdays at the same time and location.

Mountainview Thoroughbred Racing Association, Stadium Casino, LLC, Mount Airy #1, LLC, and Greenwood Gaming and Entertainment, Inc. are ineligible to bid on additional Category 4 locations at the upcoming auction and during the others held in the initial round of auctions.

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.

Additional information on the Category 4 auction process is available on the Board's web site at www.gamingcontrolboard.pa.gov.

About the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board:

The Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board is tasked to oversee all aspects of the state's casino industry, along with oversight of new gaming initiatives to the Race Horse Development and Gaming Act recently approved through the signing of Act 42 of 2017.

The Commonwealth's casino industry currently consists of 10 stand-alone and racetrack casinos in operation, along with the two smaller resort casinos.  These facilities collectively employ 18,000 people and annually generate approximately $1.4 billion in tax revenue from slot machine and table games play. The largest portion of that money is used for property tax reduction to all Pennsylvania homeowners.

Additional information about both the PGCB's gaming regulatory efforts and Pennsylvania's gaming industry can be found at www.gamingcontrolboard.pa.gov. You can also follow the agency on Twitter by choosing @PAGamingControl.

CONTACTS: Doug Harbach or Richard McGarvey
(717) 346-8321  

SOURCE Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board