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Las Vegas Sands opens $743 million Pa. casino
Casino is expected to bring additional competition to Atlantic City
Carolyn Kaste/AP Photo
Las Vegas Sands opened its newest casino in Bethlehem, Pa. Friday. The $743 million casino’s architecture pays homage to the steel mill, but locals and Las Vegas Sands executives hope the slot parlor can help the gambling giant overcome pressures against its own struggling industry.
Friday, May 22, 2009 | 7 a.m.
About 2,500 miles away from its home base, Las Vegas Sands opened its newest casino this morning in Bethlehem, Pa.
The $743 million Sands Bethlehem is about an hour from Philadelphia and northern New Jersey suburbs and an hour and a half from New York City. The industrial design and architecture of the casino pays homage to the historic Bethlehem Steel Mill site the casino sits on.
Sands Bethlehem debuted with 3,000 slots, four restaurants -- including Emeril Lagasse’s first restaurant in the northeast, Emeril’s Chophouse -- and two bars and lounges.
Sands preserved many of the mill buildings, including 20-story blast furnaces that have distinguished the skyline for 100 years, and "the Steel's" 1,500-foot-long No. 2 Machine Shop, once the world's largest.
Citing the recession, work was halted on Sands’ master plan in October. That plan includes the development of 300 hotel rooms modeled after the Palazzo Las Vegas, 200,000 square feet of retail space and 50,000 square feet of convention space. The casino is opening without hotel rooms.
Sands also plans eventually to add a National Museum of Industrial History.
"The whole Bethlehem Steel story was the building and defending of America, and we wanted to respect that story through the architecture and design of the property," Sands Bethlehem President Robert DeSalvio said. "You've got people all over the country that have connections to Bethlehem Steel, and I think there is generally a real warm feeling that now life has been brought back."
The Pennsylvania gaming market saw tremendous growth in the last year, unlike more traditional gaming markets such as Las Vegas and Atlantic City. The American Gaming Association’s annual report released earlier this week showed consumer spending in Pennsylvania commercial casinos grew 48.3 percent in the past year. The state hired 20 percent more casino workers over the last year.
The recent growth in Pennsylvania has hurt the region’s top gaming market, Atlantic City. The AGA report showed consumer spending in New Jersey casinos dropped 8.5 percent, the fourth largest decline after Illinois, Colorado and Nevada.
In April, a New Jersey Casino Control Commission annual report showed Atlantic City saw a 7.1 percent drop in revenue across the city’s hotel-casinos in 2008, compared to 2007.
Commission Chairman Linda Kassekert said the decline in revenue reflected the overall economy, as well as competition from gaming operations in neighboring states like New York, Pennsylvania and Delaware.
Sands Bethlehem expects to draw half of its expected 5 million annual visitors from New York City and northern New Jersey, two areas Atlantic City greatly depends on for visitors.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Discussion: 11 comments so far…
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Locally owned and independent for more than 50 years.
Now this is very interesting. If PA is going to start putting in Las Vegas casinos other states (that haven't already) will too. It will be interesting to see how Las Vegas fares 50 years from now.
Their Grand-Opening Special: Every Unemployment/Welfare/Social Security Checks Cashed Gets Free Buffet Coupon.
You raise a good point davidwayneosdach!! Mind if I just call ya Dave?
As laws are passed in other states to allow gaming, people will stay in their own backyards. For example, check out the California Indian casinos.
We're gonna have to find another way to prosper. The bad thing about being the best is that there is and will always be someone trying to "outbest" you.
Is that a full casino or just a slot joint? I still don't get it.
The gaming tax rate is so high there (over 50%), Sands is really going to have to churn the customers through there to hit their financial returns. I can't believe Sands sunk $743 million essentially into a slot joint.
50 years from now this will be a wilderness - all dried up - get a life, Las Vegas - wonder where the next hot places will be - maybe in the Northeast where they have water and where snow is in?
They will never be a patch on super las vegas
You Las Vegans have such a pessimistic view of your own city...as a PA resident (who one day hopes to retire to Las Vegas), you don't understand the appeal Vegas has to the rest of the country...it is a special place, a destination...the desert air, the scenery, the mega-resorts, the variety of entertainment and dining options...few places have such a strong sense of place when you are there as Las Vegas does...I try to get to Vegas one or two times a year, but I never go to Atlantic City (it's a dump!)...and yes, this new Sands is only a slot joint, as are all the PA casinos...as a table game player, I save my money by not going to AC a few times a year so I can play bigger stakes on the 1 or 2 trips I take a year to Vegas...
There is one Las Vegas...and always will be. It's a VERY SPECIAL place to any outsider.Foxwoods,Mohegan Suns and Atlantic City on the East coast are fine if you want something near by.But nothing compares to being among the casino in Las Vegas.I too travel several times a year to enjoy and be among the excitement you can only find there in Neveda.Soon this year Las Vegas will be my new home and look forward too it.
oh and the SANDS in PA ?......Las Vegas has nothing to worry about .
bigdaddyj is right. Las Vegas is an iconic place. Yes I know the word is overused and often misapplied or misplaced or however you want to refer to it's misapplication! But Vegas is an iconic place on the globe.
I always think of the Eiffel Tower. Disparaged when it was first made. Heck even the Hummer. I don't drive one nor care to but someday it too will be perceived as an iconic U.S automobile. They both overcame adversity and resistance and ultimately found a loyal base that transcended generations ethnic groups etc etc...
Vegas is like that too. Always generating buzz, which it inevitably parlays to its advantage, as people revere it no matter what is spoken or written about it.
I too am from the Northeast originally. Born and raised in Ct, twenty five years in Ma. Vegas has that distant glamorous appeal that N.J or Pa. just can't assume.