Order of Appearance Announced for Upcoming Category 3 Casino License Eligibility/Suitability Hearings

HARRISBURG, Pa., Oct. 25 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board today announced the order in which the four applicants for the remaining Category 3 resort casino license will appear when eligibility/suitability hearings are held November 16th and 17th.

The hearings will be held at the Pennsylvania State Museum located at the corner of Third and North Streets in Harrisburg, with order as follows:

Tuesday, November 16, 2010

11:00 am to 3:00 pm - Mason-Dixon Resorts, LP  (proposed location at the Eisenhower Hotel, Conference Center and Resort in Cumberland Township, Adams County)

4:00 pm to 8:00 pm - Bushkill Group, Inc. (proposed location at the Fernwood Hotel and Resort, Middle Smithfield Township, Monroe County)

Wednesday, November 17, 2010

10:00 am to 2:00 pm - Woodlands Fayette, LLC (proposed location at the Nemacolin Woodlands Resort, Wharton Township, Fayette County)

3:00 pm to 7:00 pm - Penn Harris Gaming, LP (proposed location at the Holiday Inn Harrisburg West, Hampden Township, Cumberland County)

The hearings offer the Board the opportunity to hear directly from the applicants on their eligibility and suitability for a Category 3 license, and why their project is better than that of other applicants.  Board members can also question applicants as to their character, operational and financial suitability, diversity plans, community impact, plans for the prevention of compulsive gaming and other issues.  

Information from these hearings will become part of the evidentiary record as will information gathered by the PGCB's Bureaus of Investigations and Enforcement and Licensing, along with testimony gathered earlier through both public input hearings for each applicant and written comments from the public and elected officials.

Once the evidentiary record is closed, the Board can consider an award of this second Category 3 license. The other Category 3 license was awarded to Valley Forge Resort Casino on April 8, 2009, but has yet to begin operations pending the resolution of an appeal of the Board's licensing decision to the State Supreme Court by Greenwood Gaming, operator of the Parx Casino in Bensalem.

About the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board

The Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board was established in 2004 with the passage of Act 71, also known as the Race Horse Development and Gaming Act.  Pennsylvania's first new state agency in nearly 40 years, the Gaming Control Board is tasked to oversee all aspects of the state's casino industry.  To date, with ten casinos in operation, legalized gaming in the Commonwealth has created over 13,000 new living wage jobs, revenue that has provided property tax reduction in each of the past three years for all homeowners, funds that have reinvigorated Pennsylvania's horse racing industry, and new revenue to local governments that has funded scores of community projects.  A wealth of information about the Gaming Control Board and Pennsylvania's gaming industry can be found at www.pgcb.state.pa.us.  At this web site, visitors can view videos of Board meetings and on the operation of the PGCB, obtain  information on identifying a gambling problem and gaining assistance, look up future meeting schedules and past meeting transcripts, access an interactive map of casino locations, request a speaker for their group, along with much more information.

SOURCE Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board