Proposed racino near New Castle remains on track

Staff report

NEW CASTLE, Pa.

A proposed racino in Lawrence County, Pa., is waiting to clear regulatory hurdles before a decision is made on whether the project will move forward.

Lawrence County Commissioner Dan Vogler said the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board kept the record open for a 60-day period on a public hearing hosted in the county May 8, to allow written comment by those who couldn’t make that meeting on the proposed Lawrence Downs Casino and Racing resort.

“There is considerable public support in Lawrence County for this project,” he said. “When you look at who all testified ... the testimony was unanimously in support of the project ... There was no one in Lawrence County that stood up at that hearing and spoke against the project, so it’s safe to say that the community is very much behind this proposed facility.”

The proposed harness track-racino would sit at the intersection of U.S. Route 422 and Pennsylvania state Route 551. That is about 20 miles east of Austintown in Ohio and Hollywood Gaming at Mahoning Valley Race Course, set to open its casino portion Sept. 17 with 850 video lottery terminals, and begin thoroughbred racing Nov. 24.

Lawrence Downs is estimated to provide 600 jobs. “With 600 employees, they would become one of the larger employers in the county ... This would result in a very significant economic boost for not only Lawrence County, but for the surrounding counties as well,” Vogler said.

The project would include 1,250 slot machines with the capacity for an additional 250, about 40 live table games, 10 poker tables and be valued at $225 million. Officials with the project have estimated it will require 1,000 construction jobs as well.

Read the full story Tuesday in The Vindicator and on Vindy.com.