INQUIRER: The Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruled yesterday that the SugarHouse Casino could be built on the city’s waterfront in Fishtown, reversing an attempt by the Nutter administration to stymie the project. The court decided, 4-2 with one abstention, that the city could not revoke the license giving SugarHouse the authority to build over the Delaware River that was issued during the last days of Mayor John F. Street’s administration. “We’re grateful to the Supreme Court for ruling in our favor,” Greg Carlin, chief executive officer of HSP Gaming, the developer of SugarHouse, said in an interview. He did not give […]

DAILY NEWS: Claiming that “the political landscape has changed” in the battle over casinos in Philadelphia, Gov. Rendell said yesterday that he will meet with operators of two proposed gaming houses about abandoning their Delaware River sites. Rendell spoke a day after two powerful Philadelphia legislators – State House Appropriations Committee chairman Dwight Evans and State Sen. Vince Fumo – threatened the operators with legislative recrimination if they didn’t agree to relocate the casinos. Rendell said in an interview that opposition to the sites by the lawmakers and by Mayor Nutter were reason enough for him to convene a meeting […]

BY CHRISTOPHER CALDWELL FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES In March, the Massachusetts House of Representatives rejected a measure that looked unstoppable when it was proposed by Gov. Deval Patrick last September: the authorization of “destination casinos” across the commonwealth. The plan was for Massachusetts to sell three 10-year licenses for at least $200 million apiece and then tax the casinos’ takings at 27 percent, raking in $400 million a year. That, went the reckoning, would cover a $1.3 billion budget shortfall. Patrick was backed by The Boston Globe, big casino corporations and some trade unions. His opponent, the House speaker, […]

TRENTON, N.J. — An illegal sports gambling ring run out of a high-stakes poker room in an Atlantic City casino was busted Wednesday and 18 people were arrested, including four with mob ties, a law enforcement official said. The four — affiliated with the Philadelphia mob — appeared to be the ringleaders, with six employees of the Borgata Hotel Casino & Spa also among those arrested, said the source, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to comment on the case.Five more people were being sought Wednesday. Borgata spokesman Rob Stillwell said the casino did nothing […]

Mayor Street and Gov. Rendell met three weeks ago with the owners of SugarHouse, a proposed casino that can’t start construction because zoning approval is stalled in City Council. SugarHouse laid out a strategy to get its project moving. Missing from the meeting: the city’s next mayor. That concerns Michael Nutter, the former city councilman widely expected to be elected mayor today. Street and Rendell, a former two-term mayor, should hold off on decisions about city casinos until the next mayor takes office in January, Nutter said. “I would certainly hope that they would extend the same courtesy and respect […]

ASSOCIATED PRESS: PHILADELPHIA – Several neighborhood civic groups sued state gambling regulators Monday over their approval of two Philadelphia casinos. The plaintiffs fear the casinos will bring traffic congestion, pollution, increased crime and other problems to their neighborhoods. They said the public had no chance to comment on the proposals after the Nov. 15 application deadline. The groups also allege that former commission Chairman Tad Decker should have excluded himself earlier in the process because of his close ties to a law firm, Cozen O’Connor, that represents SugarHouse’s developer. Decker left the firm to serve as the gaming board chairman […]

INQUIRER: In suing the administration and City Council, SugarHouse joined the city’s other planned casino, Foxwoods, in forsaking the political process for the courts. Foxwoods Casino has also asked the Supreme Court to require the city to approve its project. (Virtually all issues connected with the licensing, planning and zoning of the state’s nascent slots industry go directly to the highest court, by law.) The lawsuit’s intent: “to force these guys to do what they’re legally obligated to do,” said SugarHouse’s lawyer, Stephen Cozen. Cozen was joined by labor leaders who urged the city to build the casinos now. Critics […]

In a front page article Saturday on attorney Richard Sprague’s efforts to quash a grand jury investigation of his client, Louis DeNaples, we inexcusably forgot to mention that Sprague and his children own a little more than 13 percent of SugarHouse Casino. SugarHouse plans a $550 million casino on Delaware Avenue straddling the Fishtown/Northern Liberties border. DeNaples, a prodigious campaign contributor from Scranton, hopes in the coming weeks to reopen the once-famous Mt. Airy Lodge in the Poconos as the state’s first standalone slots parlor.Until recently, Sprague also represented the chief architect of the 2004 law that legalized slots in Pennsylvania, […]

PHILADELPHIA – People opposed to the siting of two casinos in their Philadelphia neighborhoods have disrupted a meeting by state regulators. The protests [not pictured] forced the Gaming Control Board to end its session before it could complete its agenda. The board had some protesters removed, adjourned the meeting several times and even tried to continue its business while the demonstrators tried to interrupt.The residents believe they didn’t get enough say in the locations chosen for two Philadelphia casinos. Both casinos are to be placed on the Delaware River waterfront, not far from homes. The casinos still need zoning changes […]

HARRISBURG, Pa. – Tad Decker, who oversaw the birth of the state’s slot machine industry as the first chairman of the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board, said Wednesday he is leaving the job after one term to return to his former law firm. Decker, 61, will step down Aug. 9 to take over as president and chief executive officer of Philadelphia-based Cozen O’Connor. Decker was the firm’s managing partner three years ago when Rendell, his college pal, appointed him chairman of the fledgling agency. Cozen O’Connor is no stranger to the state’s gambling industry: The firm is representing two slots casino […]