Penn National ends legal battle against mini casinos

The Pennsylvania gaming company has withdrawn its lawsuit against mini casinos.

US.- As the legal battle between Pennsylvania National Gaming, the regional leading casino company, and local mini casino operators kept moving forward, it was confirmed yesterday by local media that the gaming company decided to withdraw the lawsuit.

The official statement published yesterday by Penn National reads: “We made a business decision to withdraw our lawsuits against the Category 4 (casino) law. While we continue to believe in the merits of our arguments, we have chosen to focus entirely on our development efforts for our two new casinos, rather than pursue what is likely to be a lengthy and costly legal battle.”

It continues: ”As previously stated, our goal in pursuing our Cat4 licenses is both defensive, in terms of protecting our existing investment at Hollywood Casino from new competition, and offensive in terms of penetrating more deeply into more populous market areas to our south and east, in order to drive incremental value for our shareholders.”

Ten category 4 satellite casinos are allowed to be built under the gambling expansion Law and would be able to install up to 750 slot machines and 40 table games, and must be at least 25 miles away from existing casinos. Nonetheless, it is still yet to be seen if there actually are 10 towns willing to develop gaming venues as many have already said no.

Until now, there are at least two towns who have voiced their interest in satellite casinos: Curwensville and Reading. Both town councils believe developments like these should boost revenue and jobs and are keen to get their own.