Rivers Casino Makes Case for Casino Table Games Before Pennsylvania Gaming Board
Pennsylvania officials are moving at a fast pace when it comes to casino gaming expansion. After receiving excellent news regarding slot machine revenue in December 2009, legislators legalized casino table games in January 2010.
The Rivers Casino is one of the newest gaming establishments in Pennsylvania and casino officials could not have been happier with the arrival of the table games. After just a few months of operations, the facility learned of the legislative plans to allow casino table games in state casinos.
On April 26th, 2010, Rivers Casino executives made their pitch before the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board. Part of the process of adding casino table games are that a public hearing should be held. That hearing happened today, but not many community and business leaders showed up to participate.
The general manager of the Rivers Casino, Todd Moyer, said that if someone were to come there and announce that they were going to create a product and 458 new employment opportunities, this whole room would be filled to capacity. Moyer was advocating that new jobs that would be needed if the casino table games license was filled.
The state of Pennsylvania has been one of the states in the US where unemployment has reached record highs. The construction and permanent employment opportunities that would be needed at the Rivers Casino would reach more than four hundred jobs and that is a number that the Pennsylvania Gaming Board will not take lightly.
Many of these hearings have simply been mere formalities. The casino facilities in the state expect that they will have the games operational by summer.
Once the games are up and running, Pennsylvania will have a good chance to overtake Atlantic City in New Jersey as the gambling capital in the northeastern part of the U.S. Rivers Casino has a plan to add casino table games like craps, which can only be previously enjoyed in Las Vegas and Atlantic City.
The facility would also prefer to eliminate 126 of their current slot machines but Pennsylvania regulators may not approve of that decision.
2010-05-04
Sophie White
