PRESS RELEASE

HARRISBURG, PA: 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:

• 500 slot machines
• electronic tables games
• a restaurant and sports bar 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.

About the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board

The Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board is tasked to oversee all aspects of gambling at 15 land-based casinos, online casino games, retail and online sports wagering, and Video Gaming Terminals (VGTs) at qualified truck stops, along with the regulation of online fantasy sports contests.

The land-based casino industry in Pennsylvania consists of six racetrack (Category 1) casinos, five stand-alone (Category 2) casinos, two resort (Category 3) casinos and three mini-casinos (Category 4).  Casino expansion will continue over the next couple of years with the anticipated openings of up to two additional Category 4 casinos. A significant job generator in the Commonwealth, casinos and the other types of Board-regulated gaming is expected to generate over $1.8 billion in tax revenue during the 2021/2022 State Fiscal Year.

Additional information about both the PGCB’s gaming regulatory efforts and Pennsylvania’s gaming industry can be found at https://gamingcontrolboard.pa.gov/  . You can also follow the agency on Twitter by choosing @PAGamingControl.