Yesterday, the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board awarded Philadelphia's second casino license to Live! Hotel and Casino, a joint venture between Cordish Companies and Greenwood Gaming. The project will be located at 10th & Packer, where an already existing Holiday Inn will be completely remodeled. The new casino will have 2,000 slot machines and 125 table games, and will be located just a couple of blocks away from Citizens' Bank Park. According to the Inquirer, the Board saw the casino's proximity to the stadiums as a major benefit and hopes that spillover from games and events will increase casino revenue. Also, there was apparently a belief that gamblers would predominantly travel by car, which could have been troublesome for the two downtown casino proposals.
Word leaked last week that Live! would be the choice, leading to a community meeting hosted by the Sports Complex Special Services District. At the 400 plus person meeting, neighbors, community leaders, and representatives from the nearby Mastery Charter School spoke out against the project. Several labor representatives spoke up as well, seemingly with a more positive take on the project and the jobs its construction would create. In the media, some have spoken out wishing that the casino was being built in Center City with an eye toward satellite economic development. Others (like Sugarhouse) are worried that another casino anywhere will be unsuccessful and do damage to the casinos already built in Pennsylvania.
What do you think? Is this the right spot for Philadelphia's second casino? Should it have gone in Center City? Should it be built at all?