Editorial | Spots for Slots
Casinos should reconsider
Philadelphia Inquirer
Sunday, 2007-12-02
Gambling is a business where the pros are supposed to know how to cut their losses.
Not so, it appears, with the two casinos that want to open along the Delaware River in Philadelphia.
Both projects are mired in controversy and community and political opposition. Yet, casino officials refuse to consider moving to better locations.
Maybe it's time, then, for casino owners to take a look at the cards they are holding.
At the casinos where Pennsylvania's first slot machines are ringing up impressive revenues, the only glitch last week was a water main break that briefly closed Bensalem's Philadelphia Park Casino.
Meanwhile in Philadelphia, the two planned casinos were licensed a year ago, but are nowhere near enticing their first customer. In the short term at least, the city's two casinos remain long shots. Neither Foxwoods nor the SugarHouse casino has any immediate prospect of getting city approvals to build any time soon. Despite winning the city Planning Commission's approval of its development, SugarHouse is no closer than Foxwoods to getting City Council's required blessing.