Foxwoods: Just call it gone

From our friends in Philadelphia:

A quick note, straight from Harrisburg, to share with you this excellent news:

The Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board has REVOKED Foxwoods' Philly casino license!

We want to thank all of you who sent in your comments to the PGCB; we were able to deliver more than 50 of them before the meeting started. And we also want to express our gratitude to those who trundled to Harrisburg so many times for so many hearings on Foxwoods -- at long last, your hard work has paid off!

Make a donation to Casino-Free Philadelphia, and let's keep fighting!

The vote was six in favor of revocation, one -- James Ginty, a Philadelphia businessman -- against. Foxwoods still has the option to appeal, although they haven't yet decided whether they will.

We know the fight is not over. Assuming the Foxwoods revocation stands, the PGCB will now seek to solicit new bids from other companies for a second casino in Philadelphia. We'll continue to fight against a casino anywhere in the city.

Our objective now is to prevent the casino rebidding process from taking place -- all while keeping pressure on SugarHouse through our Casino Town Watch, exposing the casino's predatory tactics and making clear the community opposition any casino in Philadelphia will face.

If you feel that this work is important, we hope you'll take a moment to make a contribution to Casino-Free so we can keep fighting.

Donate to Casino-Free and let's make sure Philadelphia never gets a second casino!

We'll be posting more news about this decision as it's released today, on our website and on our Facebook page.

In struggle and celebration,

Lily, Ivan, Dan, Francesca and the Casino-Free Philadelphia working groups



Project management of casino came full circle

The long-delayed South Philly casino will now be called the "Horseshoe," but really "Rodeo Lasso" would be more appropriate, not just because it hopes to rope in gamblers, but because the project is one big circle.
The casino company Bally's put down a bet 15 years ago on 16 acres of vacant land between the Delaware River and Columbus Boulevard at Reed Street. Bally's paid $20 million in options for 10 years, thinking at first the plot would be a good parking lot for proposed riverboat gambling.

Bally's became Caesars Entertainment, which put down an additional $45 million to purchase the land in 2005, six months after the state legalized casinos in 2004.

Caesars was absorbed in 2005 by Harrah's Entertainment, which already had a casino planned for Chester. Harrah's allowed a group of local investors to put down a note to pay $52.2 million for the land once it opened a "Foxwoods" casino in partnership with the Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation of Connecticut.

The tribe then ran into serious financial trouble. The local investors stumbled when their first replacement partner, casino developer Steve Wynn, signed on to take over the project earlier this year and then stunned them by dropping out of the deal.

So here comes Harrah's - which last month changed its name to Caesars - to save the project, just as the state Gaming Control Board is considering revoking the South Philly casino license.

Caesars plans to brand the casino Horseshoe, which is part of another brand it controls - Bally's.



Gaming Control Board folds on Foxwoods casino plan
By CHRIS BRENNAN
Philadelphia Daily News

CALL IT Foxwoods. Call it Horseshoe. Just call it gone.

The state Gaming Control Board, fed up after four years of delays, yesterday took the unprecedented action of revoking the license for a South Philly casino.

That came as local investors pleaded for more time to build the casino on Columbus Boulevard at Reed Street in a new partnership with Caesars Entertainment Inc.

The board zeroed in on three faults: The investors submitted incomplete documents Friday on the Caesars deal; they changed the way charities would benefit from casino profits; and the project as now designed is notably different from the project first approved in December 2006.

The local investors are expected to file an appeal in court but will have to go it alone. An attorney for Caesars, which already runs Harrah's in Chester, said after the vote that his company has no role to play going forward.

Caesars would have become a one-third owner of the casino, previously called "Foxwoods," and would have managed it under its "Horseshoe" brand.

The board's staff in March said such a ruling as yesterday's would mean it would take at least four years for a second casino to open in Philadelphia - including anticipated legal challenges, rebidding and new-applicant approval, as well as the construction of a new casino project.

The revocation is a stunning political blow to Gov. Rendell in his final month in office. Rendell, who is close with the project's local investors, ran for office on casino gambling as a way to raise money for the state.

Rendell, through a spokesman, yesterday said he "doesn't know enough about the facts of the decision to comment, but obviously the process worked."

The vote was 6-1 with just board member Jim Ginty, appointed by Rendell in July to a second three-year term, pushing to give the casino investors more time. Ginty said he was worried about the loss of 650 construction jobs and 1,200 casino jobs, along with delays in local gaming taxes for the city and school district.

Ginty warned that the state General Assembly might grow frustrated and pass legislation to move the casino license out of the city.

Mayor Nutter yesterday said lack of a second casino - the first, SugarHouse, opened in Fishtown in September - would affect the city's five-year financial plan.

Nutter, who helped push the local investors into a failed attempt to relocate the casino to Center City, said the city is not to blame for the project's fatal delays.

"The economy, the recession clearly had a big impact, and I think there were some internal issues," Nutter said. "This matter a long time ago moved way away from the city."

Fred Jacoby, an attorney for the local investors, called the vote arbitrary and unreasonable, and said the investors want a refund for the $50 million fee they paid for the casino license.

Doug Sherman, chief counsel for the board, said the state gaming law has no provision for a refund and the board has no authority to issue one to the investors.

The board, long frustrated by delays in the project, last month set a deadline of last Friday for a signed, finalized deal on what the investors would build, how they would pay for it, who would own it and who would manage it.

Cyrus Pitre, head of the board's Office of Enforcement Counsel, yesterday said the investors submitted letters from two banks that said they were confident but not yet committed in funding $200 million for the $275 million first phase of construction. Pitre said the submitted ownership information had blank spaces and other areas in which information was promised later.

For the other $75 million, $21 million was pledged by Comcast-Spectacor chairman Ed Snider and a charitable trust set up by the daughter of New Jersey Nets owner Lewis Katz.

Real-estate developer Ron Rubin, who in the initial plan had been a partner through a charitable trust, had not volunteered to help fund the Caesars deal, Jacoby said.

Caesars contributed $25 million, and the local investors hoped to raise raise the remaining $29 million. Caesars agreed to provide a $10 million bridge loan if the local partners could raise at least $19 million.

Pitre said the documents showed the deal might not close until as late as May 2011.

The board was clearly unhappy with changes made to an original pledge of 42 percent of the casino profits going to local charities for children, an anticipated $300 million over 10 years.

The new plan would taken sent some of that money, $6 million over seven years, to the Pequot Museum in Connecticut.

The Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation, which runs two casinos under the Foxwoods brand in that state, was originally a major partner and planned to manage the casino. The tribe, after serious financial troubles, was now little more than a passive investor.


"I guess there's charity and then there's charity," Jacoby said after the board questioned sending the money to Connecticut. "I hadn't realized that until today."

A small group of Casino-Free Philadelphia members cheered yesterday's decision, but anticipated another casino operator would seek the license.

Casino developer Steve Wynn, who briefly partnered with the local investors, said he would seek the license if it was revoked.

Trump Entertainment Resorts has a federal lawsuit pending against the board, claiming it should be given the license.

"We keep fighting," said Lily Cavanaugh, spokeswoman for Casino Free.