Gaming Board Picks Foxwoods And SugarHouse Gang; DiCicco Smells A Rat, Plans To File Suit To Reveal Which Varmints Have Cheese On Their Breath

by KYW’s Mike Dunn

The Philadelphia city councilman whose district includes both of the sites chosen says politics, not merit, prompted the Gaming Board?s approvals. And he?s taking it to court.

First District councilman Frank DiCicco is disappointed by the two choices -? particularly the selection of the Foxwoods bid for a casino at Delaware Avenue and Reed Street:

?I have always felt that Foxwoods was the worst site.?

He says the traffic problems there are already enormous and will only get worse:

?There?s total gridlock today. And (with a casino) you raise the level of vehicles by somewhere between two and four million additional vehicles a year. I don’t know how anyone?s going to get to the river.?

DiCicco suspects that the political connections of the two successful applicants played a key role in the awards, and he intends to file a lawsuit to bring the Gaming Board?s decision-making process out into the open:

?For the life of me I just can’t figure out how the Gaming Board made this decision. And it’s one of the reasons I will be filing a suit in the not-too-distant future, to find out what criteria they used to select Foxwoods.?

KYW: DiCicco To The Lawsuit Rescue
RADIO TIMES: “Philadelphia casino locations revealed. We get reaction to the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board?s approval of the two waterfrontcasinos. The Foxwood will be in South Philadelphia, and Sugar House is planned for Northern Liberties. We hear from Philadelphia Inquirer reporter JEFF SHIELDS, anti-casino activists RENE GOODWIN and MATT RUBEN, and PAUL LEVY, president and CEO of the Center City District and co-chair of the Philadelphia Gaming Advisory Task Force.” Thursday 10 AM