Parx Casino Shippensburg to open later this year
The mini casino in Shippensburg Township, Cumberland County, is slated for November, but no specific date has been set.
US.- The Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board has said that there is still no definite date set for the opening of a new Parx Casino branch in Shippensburg Township. In January, Greenwood Gaming & Entertainment was awarded a licence to construct a Category 4 casino. It will be the state’s fourth mini-casino.
The 73,000-square-foot casino will occupy about half a former big-box store It will be a scaled-down version of Parx’s casino in Bensalem, which is the state’s top casino by revenue.
Richard McGarvey from the PGCB said: “It will be later in the year. As we get closer, the actual start date will become clearer.”
A $65m construction project began in February, with November as the target for launch. Shippensburg will offer 500 slot machines and electronic table games such as blackjack, baccarat, and roulette with remote dealers. The flagship Bensalem casino has more than 3,000 slots.
A Category 4 Slot Machine License permits the operation of between 300 and 750 slot machines. The operator can also request permission to initially operate up to 30 table games for an additional fee of $2.5m, with the capability of adding an additional 10 tables games after the first year of operation.
The facility, which will be non-smoking, expects to create 175 construction jobs, including more than 125 full-time equivalent permanent jobs. The casino also plans to offer sports wagering in the future.
See also: Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board renews licence for Hollywood Casino at the Meadows
Pennsylvania gaming revenue reaches $447.7m in May
Pennsylvania’s combined revenue from regulated gaming and fantasy contests generated $447.7m in May. That’s 3.2 per cent less than the revenue of $461.6m generated in April but an increase of 8.4 per cent year-on-year.
Sources of gaming revenue regulated by the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board include slot machines, table games, internet gaming, sports wagering, fantasy contests and video gaming terminals (VGTs).
Retail slots revenue increased 2.1 per cent year-on-year to $205.7m and retail table games revenue 14.7 per cent to $88.6m.
Hollywood Casino at Penn National in Grantville led Pennsylvania’s land-based casino revenue, reporting $62.8m, a decrease of 0.2 per cent from May 2021. Parx Casino in Philadelphia, generated $57.5m, a year-over-year decrease of 6.9 per cent. Valley Forge Casino Resort in King of Prussia saw its revenue fall 25.1 per cent from last year to $52.8m.
As for slot revenue, Parx Casino generated $34.3m, a decrease of 9.2 per cent from May 2021. It was the second consecutive month that the Philadelphia casino has seen a year-over-year decrease in slot revenue. Wind Creek Bethlehem generated $24.9m and Rivers Casino Pittsburgh’s $22.1m.
The number of slot machines in operation in May 2022 was 26,004 compared to 22,496 in May 2021. Tax revenue from the play of slot machines last month was $104.8m.
