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Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board Sets Public Hearing For Gettysburg Casino

Posted on July 25th, 2010

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A public hearing on the proposed establishment of a casino near the Gettysburg battleground has been scheduled for late next month by the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board. The state gaming board on Wednesday announced that the board will listen to testimony from different speakers and participants of a public hearing on the proposed casino on Aug. 31 at the Comfort Suites at 945 Baltimore Pike in Cumberland Township. The hearing will start at 10 in the morning. Gaming Control Board spokesman Richard McGarvey said the Comfort Suites would be a convenient venue for the public hearing as the hotel provides adequate room and parking and is within easy reach by the public.

David LeVan, a businessman from Gettysburg and his business partner, Joseph Lasinger Jr. have plans of renovating and transforming the Eisenhower Inn and Conference Center into a casino resort. The Inn, located at 2634 Emmitsburg Road, is less than a mile south of the site of the Battle of Gettysburg, a national historical event that occurred in the American Civil War in 1863 in and around the town of Gettysburg in Pennsylvania. The existing building of the Inn would hold the casino which would offer 600 slot machines and 50 table games.

The board will listen to participants of the hearing which will speak in favour of or against the proposed casino. The gaming board’s website warns the speakers not to use foul or rude words and to avoid rowdy behaviour during the hearing, and if any violation occurs, the speaker would not be allowed to speak. Every speaker will be given three minutes to say his piece and no participant can give his time to another. A speaker may ask the chairman to grant him/her an additional 20 seconds to bring his testimony to a close and the officer may grant the speaker’s request. The officer in charge of the hearing can control the number of speakers and may assign one person to speak for a group, a company or an organization.

Board spokesman McGarvey says if a sufficient number of participants sign up before the hearing that would require another public hearing, the board may arrange a second schedule for the board to consider more testimony. For those who want to participate in the public hearing, the board will accept registrations until noon of Aug. 26. To register, interested parties may go to the board’s website or contact PGCB secretary Mickey Kane. Written remarks may also be sent for the record before and up to 60 days after the hearing. Written statements may be mailed to the PA Gaming Control Board at P.O. Box 69060, Harrisburg, Pa 17106, or by fax to (717) 346-8350, or to the board’s website. On the front of the envelope, below the address, the words “Attention: Board Secretary” should be written.

After the hearing and after background checks on casino investors have been completed, the chairman of the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board will then decide to which applicant the state’s last gaming license will be awarded. The chairman will make known his decision before the end of the year, according to McGarvey. Pennsylvania’s remaining Category 3 casino resort license has four competing applicants: the Mason Dixon Resort and Casino in the Gettysburg area, the Holiday Inn Harrisburg West in Cumberland County, the Fernwood Hotel and Resort in the Poconos and the Nemacolin Woodlands Resort in Fayette County.

An earlier attempt in 2005 by LeVan and other businessmen to put up the Crossroads Gaming Resort and Spa, a bigger slots casino, was rejected by the board owing to strong opposition from people who were concerned that the character of the historical area would be tarnished by a gambling facility. According to a gaming board report, the hearing on the Crossroads proposal had 123 people and 24 representatives of community organizations who presented testimony. The board received 436 written comments, as well as a petition with 5,606 signatures supporting the proposal, and two petitions from the opposition with a total of 1,434 signatures and a third petition from the opposition with 60,305 signatures from members of the No Casino Gettysburg group.