Tim Wilmott, chief operating officer and president of Wyomissing, Pa.-based Penn National Gaming Inc., joined Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley in a ribbon-cutting for the $97.5 million casino, whose doors first opened to the public Monday after trial test days last weekend.
O'Malley praised Penn National for building the slots parlor, which created 350 casino jobs, in less than two years. Maryland voters approved gambling in a November 2008 referendum.
"We are here to move the state forward and to keep [gambling] revenues from leaving our borders for Delaware and West Virginia," the governor said.
The 75,000-square-foot casino is just off the interstate's Exit 93, about 25 miles south of Delaware Park in Wilmington, 50 miles from Harrah's Chester Casino and Racetrack in Delaware County, 65 miles from SugarHouse on the Philadelphia waterfront, and 80 miles from Parx in Bensalem.
As gamblers have "more choices and [casino] locations that are closer to their homes," said gaming analyst Andrew Zarnett, of Deutsche Bank AG, "you have a dramatically more competitive landscape."
"And as the region becomes more competitive, that continues to be a negative on Atlantic City," Zarnett said, "because casinos that are competing with each other offer a variety of comps and amenities that drive traffic."
It is the jackpots that will determine whether David Buckland switches to Perryville or returns to Delaware Park, where he has been a regular.
Buckland, 66, a retired construction worker from Elkton, Md., settled in at a nickel slots machine Thursday. It looks nice, he said, but his coming back "depends on if they pay me more."
Inside, the casino's 1930s-era art deco styling mirrors other gaming venues owned and operated by Penn National, including its Hollywood Casinos in Grantville, Pa., and Charles Town, W.Va.
