Eastern Pennsylvania Citizens Against Gambling appeal slots ruling
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CITIZENS AGAINST GAMBLING
500 East Lancaster Avenue #111d Radnor, PA 19087
Monday, June 22, 2009, 8:30 AM (EST)
Contact Media Relations | 610-688-9471 | noUMgambling@aol.com
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
HARRISBURG, PA — Eastern Pennsylvania Citizens Against Gambling (E.P.C.A.G.), appealed today the decision of the Pennsylvania Gambling Control Board which approves a Category 3 Slot Machine license for the Radisson Hotel in King of Prussia, Montgomery County, PA. The appeal, filed with the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, seeks reversal of the approval, on grounds of incompatibility of the facility with the community, and unconstitutionality of the Gaming Act of 2004, which is the implementing tool for casino operators.
E.P.C.A.G. opposes infusion of gambling into Pennsylvania and has actively opposed the applications for facilities in King of Prussia, Bushkill Falls, and Philadelphia. E.P.C.A.G. applied to intervene in the King of Prussia, Bushkill Falls, and Lake Harmony application processes, but was deemed to have filed too late. E.P.C.A.G. however had filed a timely opposition earlier and participated ever since. On this basis E.P.C.A.G. claims their right to appeal and to request review of the entire process. The Bushkill Falls application remains pending.
E.P.C.A.G.’s appeal also seeks an order that the Gaming Board’s rewriting of a regulation defining gambling facilities was an unconstitutional special legislation enacted solely for the benefit of the Bushkill Falls applicants. Prior to the amendment, the applicant’s proposed parlor was under fifteen miles from the Mount Airy resort in Mount Pocono, and therefore unlicensable.
E.P.C.A.G. appeals the King of Prussia decision for a host of reasons, including:
- that the Radisson is not a “resort” facility, which is required for Category 3 slot machine licensees. The hotel has a swimming pool but is not a resort as defined in the gaming act.
- a result of oversaturation of the Philadelphia area with gambling rather than optimal geographical distribution as would be the normal course of events.
- a claim that the slot facility will ruin the visitor experience for Valley Forge tourists. The Radisson is the hotel of choice for thousands of visitors to Valley Forge National Historical Park.
- the lack of a workable plan for counteracting expected harms to citizens’ and businesses’ liberty, comfort, transportation, environment, aesthetics, and all considerations of that nature.
- failure of the applicant’s plan to address any real plan for habituation, family strife, addiction, theft and embezzlement, that will result from the presence of a slot machine parlor.
- failure to consider these harms in relation to immediately adjoining communities like Norristown, the Main Line, and Phoenixville
- objections to increased traffic which is already an ongoing sore point, and which stands to suffer significantly from the complexes being built on North Gulph Road one quarter mile to the south and on the Schuylkill River one quarter mile to the North, along with all development ongoing.
- burgeoning evidence showing that costs to the State from a gambling facility are at least twice what the facility would bring in in revenue. That the human toll is simply too great even in a purely monetary scope, not even taking into account the pain and harm from addiction, habituation, family breakups, abuse of children, spouses, and the elderly, and all related ills including steering citizens away from religion and voluntarism.
- that windfalls for Upper Merion Township will have to be immediately spent on infrastructure wear and tear, police presence, and losses in business taxes, and adjoining townships are not even granted any windfall by the gaming act.
- that the Gaming Board has cynically granted the application because casino opponents have been successful in efforts to prevent casinos in Philadelphia. The decision has a cost of detraction from the reputation and pride of the community, and the community has a high concentration of family raising neighborhoods and their schools and churches.
- numerous claims of unconstitutionality including the outrageous result of criminal activity and the associating of gambling facilities with overnight accomodations and resulting threat of prostitution.
The decision to grant the Upper Merion license has also been appealed by Greenwood Gaming, who operates Philadelphia Park Racetrack and casino in Bensalem, for reasons including that they and the Radisson would be forced to share the same market, which is a result unintended by the gaming act.
E.P.C.A.G. spokesperson James Schneller notes that the Gaming Board wrongly accepts claims of tourism enhancement from casino prospects. “In the name of tourism in Pennsylvania, the Board considers sweeping claims of the benefits of facilities proposed for King of Prussia, Bushkill, and Philadelphia, yet gambling tourism is fast dwindling in the 50 states, and the Board is irresponsibly leaning towards approving gaming at locations that detract from existing tourist magnets, and which at the same time cause great ills to the surrounding communities. It is clear to all folks knowledgeable in this arena that the only people, and I mean the only people, gaining from Pennsylvania’s gaming horror show, are the casino operators. ”
“What we have is a net effect of pushing gambling at tourists who are here anyway, so that casino operators can even siphon American’s money when they come to Pennsylvania to vacation, and this is money that would otherwise be spent on upstanding, hard working, businesses.”
E.P.C.A.G. salutes all gambling opponents who have taken the initiative to attend hearings and to speak out against the gaming Act and it’s latest errors. The Gaming Board is not guaranteed a boundless authority nor a permanent future and is regularly apprised by gambling opponents of the unconstitutional and harmful implications of their callous and unfeeling imposition of gambling. The Gaming Board’s and their overseer, the Governor’s, policy of installing gambling without considering the effects this has, not only on communities and age groups, but also on state finances, is in need of revision, especially because the strings-free windfall that politicians are claiming is not a financial reality in the big picture.
This is one of three press releases to be issued this week by Eastern Pennsylvania Citizens Against Gambling. SEE ALSO press release of Monday, May 25, 2009, 10:30 PM (EST) – Penna. Office Of Open Records Orders Valley Forge Records Released To Eastern Pennsylvania Citizens Against Gambling – Opponents Remind Public That Tavern Gambling Bill Is Nightmare, and That “Saving” Of Philadelphia Bike Race Is A Ruse, That Is Damaging To Bicycling Fans Statewide