Live! gets casino license in Pennsylvania

Losing bidders can appeal the decision to the state Supreme Court within 30 days, the court has sided with the gaming control board in every decision..

The Gaming Control Board and the developers believe Live! Hotel & Casino Philadelphia, will prove a success. “We’re very confident we’re going to grow the market,” said David Cordish, chairman of Cordish Companies. “We’re right off I-95 and I-76, so you can expand your reach and pull from two neighboring states as well as rest of  the region.”

Mr. Cordish, who owns the Maryland Live! casino resort near Baltimore, is also competing to build a $750 million gambling resort in South Blooming Grove, N.Y., about 50 miles north of Manhattan. The developer’s partner owns Parx Casino, 18 miles north of Philadelphia in Bensalem, the highest- grossing gambling hall in the state.

The SugarHouse casino, which is on the waterfront in Philadelphia, opposed the state’s plan to issue a license for a second casino inside the city. SugarHouse competes for gamblers with Parx and with Harrah’s Philadelphia Casino, which is 18 miles south of the city in Chester.

Mayor Michael Nutter of Philadelphia, however, favored the expansion if only for the promised jobs and tax revenues.

But gambling analysts are more downbeat about the future of gambling in the Northeast, where there are 59 slot parlors and tribal and commercial casinos from West Virginia to Maine.

“Another casino folding in Atlantic City doesn’t necessarily make room for another casino in Pennsylvania,” said Keith Foley, a senior vice president at Moody’s Investor Service, a debt rating agency. “This region is already in an oversupply situation. There’s a risk that the existing casinos will suffer or that the new casinos will suffer.”

Pennsylvania, whose gambling industry started in 2006, had always planned for 13 casinos. It had issued a license to the Foxwoods group for a casino on the Philadelphia waterfront. But the project never got off the ground, and the state revoked the license four years ago.

Mr. Cordish and his partner were granted that license on Tuesday. Their site is on the city’s south side in an area where an arena and two stadiums draw more than eight million spectators to professional football, baseball, basketball and hockey games. Within a stone’s throw is another Cordish project, Xfinity Live!, a restaurant and entertainment complex.

The Live Hotel & Casino would include 2,000 slot machines and electronic gaming tables; 125 tables for blackjack, baccarat and other games; as well as a 240-room hotel, a parking garage and several restaurants.

“I think the secret to casinos is what you do besides the gaming, because everybody games the same way,” Mr. Cordish said. “The best thing you can do with gaming is surround it with other amenities.”