Artists drawing of what the Sugarhouse casino will look

Sugarhouse is planning a Thursday, Oct 8th 3:00 pm official ground breaking ceremony for what will likely be the first of two major casinos in Philadelphia. The other planned casino Foxwoods has a license to build along the Delaware River in South Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter, Councilmen Frank DiCicco and Darrell Clarke, and other elected officials have been invited and are expected to attend. The event is NOT open to the public. Sugarhouse hopes to have a temporary casino facility operating by this time next year. Also, while this casino was originally conceived as a slot machine parlor, the Pennsylvania House is expected to vote today on a bill that would legalize table games for all of Pennsylvania’s planned casinos.

The Sugarhouse project was the early target of heavy opposition by some local civic associations and by Casino-Free Philadelphia. But most of the anti-casino attention shifted when it flirted with the idea of building a casino in a Center City Mall near Chinatown.

But last week 14 anti-casino protesters were arrested trying to block construction crews from entering the Sugarhouse site and have also targeted a local bank that activists say is helping finance the Sugarhouse casino. Casino-Free’s website lists another protest against Sugarhouse tomorrow. It doesn’t give any details as to what the group is planning but it is clearly tied to the ground breaking announcement.