Lawmakers vow to fight extension for Foxwoods

HARRISBURG, Dec. 2 – Several Philadelphia area lawmakers are urging the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board to deny a request by the owners of the proposed Foxwoods Casino for an extension to have slot machines ready for play.

State Reps. Mike O'Brien, Babette Josephs and Mike McGeehan, and Sens. Lawrence Farnese and Michael Stack, all D-Phila., raised their opposition today.

Philadelphia Entertainment and Development Partners, L.P. filed its request with the gaming board Monday, saying in part, the group needed more time to develop its plans in light of pending state legislation to authorize table games at licensed slots facilities.

The lawmakers called the group's rationalization absurd. No other licensed casino has asked for additional time because of pending legislation, they said.

"If there was ever a case of putting the cart before the horse, this is it," O'Brien said. "The intent of the slots gaming law was to provide wage tax relief to Philadelphians and property tax relief to homeowners, to save the state's horse racing industry and to boost economic development, not to protect the failed proposal of a gaming applicant. Foxwoods was granted a license to operate slots, not table games, and it should not be rewarded for failing to comply with the law."

Following a hearing in August, the gaming board dismissed the idea of relocating Foxwoods to another area of the city and made clear it wanted Foxwoods to build the site as originally approved in 2006, Farnese said. Foxwoods was to have a plan in place by Oct. 16, engineering and site drawings by Dec. 1, and financing by March 1 of next year.

"To date, Foxwoods has only submitted a letter saying they still have no plans, permits, or financing - but that they want more time to build a temporary facility," Farnese said. "Foxwoods keeps showing up for class and claiming the dog ate my homework. They've done nothing except hire increasingly expensive lawyers."

Josephs agreed. "This most recent action by Foxwoods is only the latest in a disturbing trend of self-entitlement. The casino investors think they can do what they want, when they want, where they want, all at the expense of the state and surrounding neighborhoods. Foxwoods should have to follow the rules like everyone else.”

The legislators said given the Bureau of Investigation and Enforcement investigation under way in the awarding of Category 2 licenses, it is not prudent to consider any further extensions legislatively or by the PGCB.

"The gaming board is keeping its reports secret because the question of whether the current Category 2 licenses are appropriate is part of an ongoing investigation," Farnese said. "If Foxwoods' ability deliver on a license is serious enough to warrant a confidential ongoing investigation, why should or would we give them more time? Either they can do this project or they can’t."

The lawmakers said they would continue to fight Foxwoods' request for an extension and its proposed facility along Columbus Boulevard, which they say is fraught with severe land-use and public safety problems.

“Foxwoods is dead wood, it is time for them to be pruned," O’Brien said.

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