Sands opens Keystone State casino

By Mark Hansel

Friday, May 29, 2009 | 3 a.m.

BETHLEHEM, Pa. — The $743 million Sands Bethlehem, the first East Coast casino by Las Vegas Sands Corp., opened to large crowds May 22 with 3,000 slot machines and a variety of dining and entertainment options.

Robert DeSalvio, Sands Bethlehem president, said about 20,000 people filed through the doors on opening night.

“We were very pleased with the opening-day crowd and with this crowd again (May 23),” DeSalvio said.

The property includes a multilevel garage with 3,400 covered parking spaces.

The casino’s official grand opening takes place June 9, but Las Vegas Sands chose to open earlier to capitalize on holiday weekend traffic, and In Business Las Vegas was there to get a look at the unique venue.

Situated on 124 acres that once housed a historic Bethlehem Steel plant, the casino pays homage to that storied facility and the region’s steel industry.

In the foyer a representation of the quenching process for battleship guns performed at the old facility’s “High House” greets visitors. Because the big guns could not rest on their sides during the cooling process, they were lifted upright with large cranes and cooled in tanks of water. Periodically, steam rises from the pool that contains the gun barrels, which rise several stories, imitating the cooling process.

The restaurants and bars also pay tribute to the steel industry, with names such as Molten Lounge and Cobalt, which has a cool blue interior.

The Bethlehem Steel plant opened more than 140 years ago and closed in 1995. During World War II it employed more than 30,000 people and in its heyday was the second-largest steel producer in the United States.

The grounds will house the National Museum of Industrial History, which is being built in conjunction with the Smithsonian Institution. Located in one of the Bethlehem Steel Plant buildings the museum will tell the story of the country’s industrial past.

Manny Castro, who came to Bethlehem from Puerto Rico to work in the steel industry more than 40 years ago, thinks the casino is a great idea.

“It’s just good to see people working here again,” Castro said. “It’s nice that they did it this way, too — to keep the history.”

Now 65 and retired, Castro said he can walk to the casino and will visit often.

DeSalvio said the casino hopes to draw about 40 percent of its visitors from the Lehigh Valley that surrounds Bethlehem and another 50 percent should come from New York and upstate New Jersey. Sands Bethlehem is about 90 miles west of New York City and has a population draw of more than 17 million within 100 miles.

The remaining 10 percent of visitors will come from other areas, including Philadelphia, which is about an hour’s drive from Bethlehem, but also has casinos.

DeSalvio is an East Coast casino veteran who worked for 10 years at Foxwoods Casino in Connecticut. Before that he spent 18 years with Caesars, Bally’s and the Sands in Atlantic City, which is where he met Rob Goldstein, now president of Venetian Las Vegas.

When Las Vegas Sands was looking for someone to run the Bethlehem operation, DeSalvio was an obvious choice.

“I got a call from Las Vegas Sands executives, who told me they were looking for someone with East Coast casino experience,” DeSalvio said. “Since I worked with executives of the company previously, it was a natural fit.”

Sands Bethlehem does not have table games or a sports book, but does have 16 electronic blackjack and three-card poker games.

DeSalvio said he hopes at some point the casino will be able to add table games, but thinks it will be successful even without them.

“I have had several people from the industry who know what they are talking about come in and say we could sit this casino down anywhere, including Las Vegas, and it would do well,” DeSalvio said.

Goldstein’s influence also helped secure the venue’s most famous restaurateur, celebrity Chef Emeril Lagasse, who opened Emeril’s Chop House on-site.

“I know both Rob and Robert DeSalvio really well, and they are both great guys,” Lagasse said. “That made the decision for me to open here much easier.”

Lagasse has two Strip restaurants at Las Vegas Sands properties, Delmonico’s Steakhouse at the Venetian and Table 10 at Palazzo. He also has Emeril’s New Orleans Fish House at MGM Grand.

This is Lagasse’s first restaurant in the Northeast and crowds lined the aisle outside of the venue all weekend to catch a glimpse of him. Many tried to get in for a taste of his signature cuisine, but the restaurant was booked solid.

Sands Bethlehem is the eighth casino to open in Pennsylvania since it legalized slots gaming in 2004. The state gets 55 cents from every dollar of a casino’s win, the amount won from gamblers.

The amount of gross revenues generated in April through slot machines at Pennsylvania casinos rose 13.76 percent over April 2008, according to the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board.

Pennsylvania casinos generated $150.6 million in gross revenues last month, compared with $132.4 million in April 2008. The state collected an average of $2.76 million per day from casinos.

Las Vegas Sands has an expansion planned at the Bethlehem casino for later this year, which will include an additional 2,000 slot machines and another Lagasse restaurant.

The company halted construction on a 300-room hotel when the economy tanked, but plans to complete that facility and add a retail component and meeting space.