Should a casino open in Shippensburg? Residents can share input on proposal
Residents can share their views on a proposed casino planned in Shippensburg Township at a public hearing next month.
The Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board will host a public input hearing March 25 at the Conference Center at Shippensburg University to gather testimony on the category four casino application submitted by Greenwood Gaming and Entertainment Inc.
In addition to serving as a forum for individuals to share their support or opposition to the proposed project, the hearing will allow residents and others with an interest in the proposal to learn more about it.
'Mini casino' could pay out $43 million
Greenwood, the parent of Parx Casino in Buck County, plans to build a satellite casino on Cramer Road within sight of Interstate 81 Exit 29 and next door to a planned “big box” warehouse off Walnut Bottom Road (Pa. 174).
The casino could open as early as August 2020, Marc Oppenheimer of Greenwood Gaming said last fall.
He said it will be a miniature version of Parx Casino and initially open with 475 slot machines and 40 table terminals, where patrons bet at a screen on the spin of a central roulette wheel.
It would employ about 200 people, 160 of them full time. Construction will temporarily employ about 350 workers and have an impact of $60 million.
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Proponents have said the casino will pay out millions of dollars to the local economy. Oppenheimer estimated the annual impact at $43 million -- including salaries, taxes, payments to local vendors and $1.8 million that will be split equally by the township and county.
The casino also brings the promise of further development at Exit 29, which township supervisor Steve Oldt previously said was the last site for commercial development in the township.
Greenwood Gaming paid $8.1 million to the gaming board one year ago for the right to locate a small casino within a 30-mile-diameter circle centered around a point in South Newton Township, Cumberland County. The company came to Shippensburg Township after failing to get Carlisle and South Middleton Township to go back on their pledges to ban a mini casino.
About 300,000 people live within 25 miles of the site and 500,000 within 40 miles, according to Oppenheimer. The casino will attract patrons from the Hagerstown, Md., area. The I-81 corridor also is growing rapidly.
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If the Shippensburg casino is approved, it will join the 10 standalone and racetrack casinos, plus two smaller resort casinos, currently in Pennsylvania. The largest portion of the $1.4 billion in tax revenue generated by slot machine and table games play is used for tax reduction for Pennsylvania property owners.
The Parx mini casino would compete with Penn National's larger Hollywood Casino in Grantville.
Registration required to give testimony
The Monday, March 25 hearing will take place at 4 p.m. in the second-floor Spinnaker Room in the SU Conference Center, 500 Newburg Road.
Individuals or groups that want to share oral or written testimony at the hearing must register ahead of time, by noon March 22. Do so online at gamingcontrolboard.pa.gov; click the "Parx Casino Shippensburg Public Input Hearing" link under the QuickLinks section of the home page.
A list of all parties who have registered to speak will be posted on the board's website beginning one week before the hearing. It will be updated.
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Those who cannot attend the public hearing but want to submit written comments can do so prior to the hearing date through the same web site link, by e-mail to boardclerk@pa.gov, or by fax to 717-265-7416. Mailed comments must be postmarked no later than March 22, 2019 and mailed to:
PA Gaming Control Board
P.O. Box 69060
Harrisburg, PA 17106
Attention: Board Clerk
All information the board receives during the hearing will be included in the record upon which the board will grant or deny a license.
There will be another public hearing later in Harrisburg. Greenwood representatives will give oral arguments, and control board members can ask questions before making a licensing decision.