Pa. Supreme Court hears casino license appeal

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — The Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board erred when it awarded a casino license to a southwestern Pennsylvania resort because the process was flawed and the resort’s proposal did not meet key criteria set by state law, an attorney for one of the three groups that lost out on the license told the state Supreme Court today.

Mason-Dixon Resorts L.P., which had hoped to build a casino near Gettysburg battlefield, is appealing the gaming board’s 6-1 decision in April to award the license to the 2,000-acre Nemacolin Woodlands Resort outside Pittsburgh.

The contested permit allows 600 slot machines and, if the board approves it separately, 50 table games.

An attorney for Mason-Dixon, Stephen Schrier, told the court that he wants the decision voided and the board ordered to reconsider who gets the license. He argued that the proposal calls for the casino to be more than a mile from the hotel on the resort property, not in the hotel as he said is required by state law.