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to promote civic engagement in the Philadelphia region.Should Foxwoods casino return to its South Philly site?
Thursday, August 27th, 2009 at 1:24 pm - by Alan Tu. Filed under: Casinos.
The Philadelphia Daily News ran a story this morning headlined “Looks like it’s back to South Philly for Foxwoods casino.” Holy cow! Are we going to go through another round of noisy protests? It was one year ago when Foxwoods announced it was willing to consider building its slots-only casino in the Market East Gallery Mall in Philadelphia.
The story by Chris Brennan suggests that it will be the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board that may tell Foxwoods to return to its original site at Columbus Blvd and Reed St.
While his story, doesn’t actually say how he knows this, Brennan told me in an email, that this is what his sources think will happen. I trust his instincts on this. So, it could happen. But the Gaming Control Board could use tomorrow’s meeting to set a deadline for having a lease in one hand and a box of nails in the other.
If you could make a recommendation to the Gaming Control Board, what would you want them to tell Foxwoods tomorrow? (Please, no profanity)
August 27th, 2009 at 2:33 pm
Forget putting Foxwoods in South Philly, forget putting it in Chinatown, forget it altogether. Philly does NOT need two casinos. It’s a recipe for disaster.
August 27th, 2009 at 3:05 pm
Put it in the new complex replacing the Spectrum! That’s not just an acceptable spot for it, it’s a really good one. In fact, I predict the new complex will be a failure *without* a casino, but could be a huge success with one.
August 27th, 2009 at 4:57 pm
I don’t like the idea of casinos in Philly, already too many problems to deal with.
We really have to ask, who is this for? I love the city, but I think we know that there is a signifiganct suburban contingency that only comes in for work and sports games and gets the heck out. This could be a trigger of more criminal activity, so if it MUST be in philly, it should be in the Spectrum complex.
It shouldn’t be smack dab in the middle of residential neighborhoods.
August 27th, 2009 at 9:36 pm
It is time to investigate what has changed since all the rosy (and dishonest) projections were made 5 years ago. The Philly casinos are poorly sited, horribly designed (if designed at all) and will face a very different context than existed five years ago. Lets have PriceWaterHouse do another invesigation. With just one third of the slots up and running in the state casinos that are opening are falling way below projected numbers: http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/09239/993527-28.stm. And the Philly casinos will be competing against an expanded Phila. Park and Harrah’s with far less to offer. Rather than move back to S. Philly it is time to stop the casinos from coming to Philly. It is the smart and sustainable thing to do.
September 18th, 2009 at 8:45 pm
Foxwoods is just about going bankrupt in Connecticut, so why do a deal with them.
If anything let the government own the slots and use the profit to reduce taxes.