Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board Awards
Category 4 License in Cumberland County
HARRISBURG: The Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board today voted unanimously to
award a license to GW Cumberland Op. Co., (Greenwood Gaming & Entertainment,
Inc, operator of Parx Casino) to construct a Category 4 casino in
Shippensburg Township, Cumberland County.
The award concludes a
process the Board began on February 22, 2018 when Greenwood Gaming and
Entertainment, Inc. secured the right to locate a casino with a winning bid of
$8,111,000 at the fourth Category 4 auction held by the Board. They filed
an application with the Board later that year to locate a newly constructed
facility just off Exit 27 of Route 81, but later amended the application to
place the casino in a former Lowe’s Home Supply store in the Shippen Town Center in the same municipality.
Subsequently, the
Board conducted an in-depth background investigation of the application along
with the collection of public input from citizens, community groups and public
officials at hearings held in Shippensburg Township on March 25, 2019 and a
second on May 20, 2021 following the applicant’s change of location of the
proposed casino. Today, prior to its vote, the Board held a final licensing
hearing in which representatives of GW Cumberland Op. Co. were questioned by
Board members about the project.
A Category 4 Slot
Machine License permits the entity to operate between 300 and 750 slot
machines. The entity could also petition for permission to initially operate up
to 30 table games for an additional fee of $2.5 million with the capability of
adding an additional 10 tables games after its first
year of operation. That table games certificate was also approved today by the
Board at its public meeting.
According to
information presented today to the Board, Parx Casino
Shippensburg will offer at opening within its 73,000 square foot facility:
The facility, which
will be non-smoking, expects to create 175 construction jobs and is targeting a
late 2022 opening. When that occurs, Parx Casino
Shippensburg would expect to have more than 125 full time equivalent permanent
jobs. The casino also plans to offer sports wagering in the future.
MEDIA CONTACTS: Doug Harbach or Richard McGarvey -
(717) 346-8321