By Jennifer Lin
Inquirer Staff Writer
HARRISBURG – After four years, the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board finally ran out of patience with the Foxwoods Casino project.
In a decision that shocked Foxwoods’ attorneys and left anti-casino activists giddy with victory, the commissioners voted, 6-1, Thursday to strip the project of its $50 million slots license.
What will happen next, no one knows.
Saving the S.S. United States
I couldn’t be more delighted that someone, i.e., Gerry Lenfest, has finally taken up my idea to convert the S.S. United States into a gambling hall (for the news story, click here) rather than allow Foxwoods to impose its imbecilic design further north on Delaware Avenue. (See “A shipboard casino for Philadelphia,” BSR, August 2009.)
If another casino in Philadelphia is inevitable, this ship couldn’t be a better place for it. The United States already has the potential of becoming a fabulously famous tourist attraction. Even at its current berth, it would cause fewer traffic/crime problems in the surrounding neighborhoods, as traffic could be funneled to it from the south, allowing the less used Oregon and Packer Avenues to take the brunt.
I do hope that Lenfest and other investors will prevail and, if so, use some of my visions for the ship as a glamorous, upscale hotel, dining and entertainment destination, rather than just gambling— which, as we are already seeing at Sugarhouse, draws mostly the most desperate. Above all, parking attendants should be at the entrances to ensure that no children are in any cars entering.
Merilyn Jackson
South Philadelphia
December 12, 2010