{"id":7906,"date":"2018-06-08T14:43:18","date_gmt":"2018-06-08T14:43:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.pokerscout.com\/?p=7906"},"modified":"2018-06-08T17:20:21","modified_gmt":"2018-06-08T17:20:21","slug":"sands-may-be-leaving-bethlehem-but-the-casino-is-not-going-anywhere","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.pokerscout.com\/sands-may-be-leaving-bethlehem-but-the-casino-is-not-going-anywhere\/","title":{"rendered":"Sands May Be Leaving Bethlehem, But The Casino Is Not Going Anywhere"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Sands Casino Resort Bethlehem<\/strong> is in good standing with the<strong> Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board<\/strong> (PGCB), according to the seven-member panel who approved the renewal of their license.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe seven-member Board determined that Sands Bethworks, LLC had fulfilled the obligations under its previously-approved casino operator\u2019s license and therefore qualified to have its license renewed for a five-year period,\u201d a <a href=\"https:\/\/gamingcontrolboard.pa.gov\/?pr=784\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">press release<\/a> from the PGCB said.<\/p>\n<p>According to the press release, Sands employees, as well as local government officials, state police, and community groups provided testimony about Sands during a public hearing in Bethlehem in April.<\/p>\n<p>Sands\u2019 license is a <strong>Category 2 license<\/strong>, which is given to stand-alone casinos. The other major categories are casino-resorts (Category 3) and <strong>racinos<\/strong> (Category 1).<\/p>\n<h2><span id=\"2018_an_interesting_year_for_sands\">2018 an interesting year for Sands<\/span><\/h2>\n<p>Unfortunately for Sands, the news of their license renewal <strong>isn\u2019t the biggest news story<\/strong> of the year for them.<\/p>\n<p>This past February, they bungled an opportunity for a Category 4 license (satellite casino) when they bid and won a license they intended to build near <strong>Mount Airy Casino<\/strong> in Eastern Pennsylvania.<\/p>\n<p>Turns out their site was within the <strong>15-mile no-build zone<\/strong> that Pennsylvania\u2019s gambling expansion law (Act 42) put in place for satellite casinos.<\/p>\n<p>Once the PGCB recognized the error, they published a press <a href=\"https:\/\/gamingcontrolboard.pa.gov\/?pr=758\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">release<\/a> explaining what happened.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>\u201cGiven that the location is non-conforming to Act 42\u2019s requirements, the bid has been therefore invalidated and Executive Director (Kevin) O\u2019Toole will proceed to consider the award for the fourth Category 4 casino auction to the second and only other bidder, Greenwood Gaming and Entertainment, Inc.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><strong>Greenwood Gaming<\/strong> owns <strong>Parx Casino<\/strong> in Philadelphia. The license fell in their lap instead. Sands did not bid on any other satellite licenses.<\/p>\n<h2><span id=\"slots_revenue_up_in_may\">Slots revenue up in May<\/span><\/h2>\n<p>While the satellite bungle was no doubt a downer for the casino, there has been some good news this year. In the most recent PGCB slots revenue report, Sands posted a<strong> 1.9-percent year-on-year gain<\/strong> compared to 2017.<\/p>\n<p>Sands and its fellow top-three slots revenue-earners posted gains in May, steadying losses and mild gains that the mid-size revenue earners experienced.<\/p>\n<p>The May gains were the second time in the past three months that Sands posted growth over the previous year. In March, the Bethlehem casino saw a<strong> 3.90-percent<\/strong>\u00a0 jump over March 2016 slots revenue.<\/p>\n<h2><span id=\"march_brought_big_news_of_sale\">March brought big news of sale<\/span><\/h2>\n<p>In addition to posting modest slots gains, 2018 also brought a significant moment in the casino\u2019s history. <strong>Las Vegas Sands Corp<\/strong>. announced it would be selling the casino to <strong>Wind Creek Hospitality<\/strong>, an Alabama-based company formed by the <strong>Poarch Band of Creek Indians<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>In an <a href=\"http:\/\/www.mcall.com\/business\/mc-biz-sands-casino-resort-bethlehem-sold-20180306-story.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">interview<\/a> with <strong>The Morning Call<\/strong>, tribal chair and CEO <strong>Stephanie Bryan<\/strong> deemed the casino and its staff \u201cfantastic\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe addition of this fantastic team and property to our portfolio furthers our desire to secure a long and prosperous future for our tribe,\u201d she was quoted as saying. \u201cWe look forward to working with our new team members and the community to cement Wind Creek Bethlehem\u2019s position as the premier entertainment destination in the Northeast.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The post Sands May Be Leaving Bethlehem, But The Casino Is Not Going Anywhere appeared first on Play Pennsylvania.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Sands Casino Resort Bethlehem is in good standing with the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board (PGCB), [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"link","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","vebbtech_seo_disable_yoast":false,"vebbtech_seo_hide_author":false,"vebbtech_seo_hide_date":false,"vebbtech_seo_hide_factchecker":false,"vebbtech_seo_fact_check_enabled":false,"vebbtech_seo_post_reviewer":0,"vebbtech_seo_post_review_date":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-7906","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-link","6":"category-news-category","7":"post_format-post-format-link"},"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v24.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Sands May Be Leaving Bethlehem, But The Casino Is Not Going Anywhere -<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, 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