This past week the Gaming Control Board set the auction schedule for the new Category 4 mini casinos authorized by Act 42. The auction’s initial round will occur on January 10th 2018 and will be open to the current Category 1 and 2 license holders.
There are ten Category 4 licenses that will be up for auction with a minimum bid of $7.5 million to operate slot machines (maximum of 750) and $2.5 million for table games (30 initially). The process reads more like a sealed bid with envelopes containing the bid for the license and the location the casino would be situated contained in separate envelopes. If the ten licenses are not auctioned off successfully on the 10th then the subsequent dates listed in the announcement will be utilized. If the bidding moves past the initial round then the process would be opened to the two Category 3 license holders.
Now on to locations: as we pointed out in a blog when the law was close to passage, there were initial restrictions on Category 4 casinos setting up shop in certain counties. The Act allows municipalities to opt-out of hosting a Category 4 casino if a resolution of the governing body expresses that wish and it is communicated to the Control Board. Here is the list as of Monday. There are eight municipalities in Allegheny County that have decided they do not want to host one of the facilities. Not on the list, but reported in the media, is Philadelphia, which voted to opt-out of hosting either a mini casino or video gaming terminals. The city/county does host a stand alone Category 2 facility and will soon have the long elusive second one permitted in the 2004 law, and one member of the City Council stated “It’s better to focus on the casinos that we have.”
