Table-games approval favors Valley View

By MARY GRZEBIENIAK

news@vindy.com

NEW CASTLE, Pa.

Legalization of table games in Pennsylvania casinos may prove to be a deciding factor in whether Valley View Downs is ultimately successful in building its harness racetrack/casino in Mahoning Township.

Lawrence County Commissioner Dan Vogler, stated when commissioners met Tuesday that table games were the deciding factor in Las Vegas casino developer Steve Wynn’s deciding to rescue the floundering Foxwoods Casino project in South Philadelphia.

Vogler attends most meetings of the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board and the Pennsylvania Harness Racing Commission to keep tabs on anything to do with the proposed Centaur $425 million racetrack/ casino in Mahoning Township.

Vogler said that when the Gaming Control Board met last week, Wynn announced he would assume 51 percent of the Foxwoods project and total management of the casino. Vogler recounted that Wynn told the board that the credit markets have not loosened up in the last year but that the deciding factor for him to invest in Pennsylvania was the legalization of table games.

Vogler said this could also prove an important factor for Centaur LLC of Indianapolis, which is the parent company of Valley View Downs, which is trying to find financing for the Lawrence County project.

“I am hopeful it will be helpful to Centaur,” he said. Centaur announced this week it has filed bankruptcy petitions as part of an effort to put the company and its subsidiaries in better financial condition.

Legalization of table games, including blackjack and others, was approved by the Pennsylvania in January for the state’s casinos.