Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board Awards Category 4 License to The Cordish Companies

HARRISBURG, Pa., Aug. 14, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- The Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board today voted unanimously to award a license to Stadium Casino, LLC, a division of The Cordish Companies, to construct a Category 4 casino in Hempfield Township, Westmoreland County.

The award concludes a process the Board began on January 24, 2018 when Stadium Casino, LLC secured a 15-mile radius area in which it could locate a casino with a winning bid of $40,100,005 at the second Category 4 auction held by the Board.

Subsequently, the Board conducted an in-depth background investigation of the application along with the collection of public input from citizens, community groups and public officials at a hearing held in Hempfield Township on December 5, 2018. Today, prior to its vote, the Board held a final licensing hearing in which representatives of Stadium Casino were questioned by Board members about the project.

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 table games certification was also approved today by the Board.

According to information presented today, Live! Casino Pittsburgh will:

• Renovate a 100,000 square foot area at the Westmoreland Mall
• Operate 750 slot machines
• Open with 30 table games with an anticipated expansion to 40 tables
• Offer dining and entertainment venues

The facility is targeting a 2020 opening. When that occurs, Live! Casino Pittsburgh expects to employ 500 persons with full or part time jobs.

This is the second Category 4 license award by the Gaming Control Board. In June of this year, an award was approved for Penn National Gaming's facility in Berks County.  Three of the projects that won auctions to apply are pending.

About the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board:

The Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board is tasked to oversee all aspects of gambling legalized under 2004's Race Horse Development and Gaming Act and the Gaming Expansion Act of 2017. In addition to slot machine and table games gambling at land-based casinos, the expansion includes online casino games available to date on three sites; sports wagering offered through sportsbooks at nine locations and through four online outlets; fantasy sports contests, and; video gaming terminals (VGTs) at truck stops and online games at airports, both expected to be launched in the coming months.

The mature casino industry in Pennsylvania currently consists of 10 stand-alone and racetrack casinos in operation, along with the two smaller resort casinos.  These facilities collectively employ over 16,000 people and annually generate over $1.3 billion in tax revenue from slot machine and table games play. Construction of a 13^th casino is currently underway along with a number of new "mini-casinos" that are expected to begin operation over the next couple of years.

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

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SOURCE Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board