Mountainview Thoroughbred Racing Association, LLC Gains Fifth Category 4 Casino Auction Award

HARRISBURG, Pa., April 4, 2018 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board today announced that Mountainview Thoroughbred Racing Association, LLC, which operates Hollywood Casino at Penn National Race Course in Dauphin County, gained the award in the fifth auction for a Category 4 casino.

Mountainview Thoroughbred Racing Association, LLC's bid of $7,500,003 secures 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. It should be noted that the Category 4 location, selected today, 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:

• 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.
• February 22, 2018: Greenwood Gaming and Entertainment Inc., which operates the Parx Casino in Bucks County, 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.

Today's 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 next public auction is scheduled for Wednesday, April 18, 2018 at 10:00 a.m. in its Harrisburg Public Hearing Room in Strawberry Square. As with all auctions, the event will be streamed live from the Board's web site.

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