Gaming license hearing in cards
The Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board will accept public comments on Nemacolin Woodland Resort’s application for a resort gaming license at a hearing in September and could vote to award the license by the end of the year. Nemacolin’s hearing will be held in the Wharton Township Municipal Building at 10 a.m. Sept. 8.
Public input hearings also have been scheduled for the three other applicants competing with Nemacolin for the second resort, or category 3, license that the board plans to issue.
In addition, the board will conduct license hearings in public with the applicants in Harrisburg after the public input hearings and could award the license this year, said board spokesman Richard McGarvey.
Nemacolin has partnered with Isle of Capri Casinos Inc. in planning to open the Lady Luck Casino with 600 slot machines and 28 table games at the resort in the building that currently houses The Wildside.
Category 3 licenses allow for up to 600 slot machines and 50 table games.
The board awarded one license to the Valley Forge Resort Casino in April, but Nemacolin and three other resorts and hotels are seeking the second license.
The Holiday Inn Harrisburg West in Mechanicsburg, Cumberland County, the Eisenhower Hotel and Conference Center in Gettysburg, Adams County, and the Fernwood Hotel and Resort in East Stroudsburg, Monroe County, are the other applicants.
Public input hearings on those applicants all precede Nemacolin’s hearing.
People can voice support or opposition or express concerns about traffic and other issues relating to the casino at the hearing, McGarvey said.
“They can bring that to the board and express their concerns and whether they want the casino,” McGarvey said. “That’s something (board members) take into consideration.”
A stenographer will make a transcript of the meeting that will be placed in a record the board will use when it deliberates the license award, he said, noting that the record for each applicant also contains background investigation reports.
Several board staff members and at least two board members usually attend each hearing, McGarvey said.
People wishing to speak at the hearing are required to register through the board’s website, www.pgcb.state.pa.us, by Sept. 2.
The names of people who register will be posted on the website. The hearing transcript also will be posted on the site.
Written comments can be mailed or faxed to the board up to 60 days following the hearing. The board’s mailing address is P.O. Box 69060, Harrisburg, PA 17106. Letters should be marked to the attention of the board secretary. The fax number is 717-346-8350.
Later this year, the board will conduct license hearings with the four applicants. Board members will be able to asked questions and the applicants will be allowed to add testimony, McGarvey said.
Those hearings haven’t been scheduled yet. They will be open to the public, but the public will not be allowed to address the board or ask questions of the applicants, he said.
McGarvey said the seven-member board hopes to schedule a public meeting to vote on the license by the end of the year.
“I think they’re aiming for the end of the year timeframe,” McGarvey said.
Nemacolin officials could not be reached for comment on Friday.
A third resort license will be available in 2017, McGarvey said.