Brady wants Philly to take a chance on running a casino
The competition to build Philadelphia’s next casino is under way, again. While a well-known Philadelphia developer and an established casino mogul are among those vying for the city’s second license, a local lawmaker has an idea of his own.
While others focus on slot machines and table games, Congressman Bob Brady is thinking about schoolchildren and union members. He wants the city to open the next casino so it can best benefit from the revenue.
“Why should we make millionaires, billionaires? And some of our billionaires twice?” Brady said. “We’ve got a chance to make a whole lot of money and that money, I thought, we could dedicate to the school district and to help the city pension fund become solvent — help our union brothers and sisters that are having a problem with a contract mainly because of the pension fund.”
Brady said the idea for a city-owned casino came from a well-known Chicago politician.
“I served with Rahm Emanuel, who was the chief of the staff of President Obama, now the mayor of Chicago,” Brday said. “And we talked about it about a year or two ago and it was part of his platform. He’s still trying to get a casino owned by the city of Chicago.”
Brady suggested the casino could be built on city-owned property in South Philadelphia that’s under the Walt Whitman Bridge.
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