CasiNotes: Mountain casino a winning alternative to shore resorts

TALK ABOUT "out of sight, out of mind." Because it's tucked away off Route 611 high in the Pocono Mountains some 110 miles north of Philly, Mount Airy Casino Resort doesn't always enter the discussion when the subject is eastern Pennsylvania gambling halls.

After all, the full-service resort complex - complete with 188-room hotel and golf course - located on the site of the old Mount Airy Lodge, doesn't have the glitz or high-voltage action of Bensalem's Parx, or the urban setting of SugarHouse in Fishtown. But thanks to its proximity to the lucrative North Jersey/New York City gaming market (about 90 minutes east on Interstate 80) and the recent legalization of table games in the state, Mount Airy is thriving.

That, at least, is the word from John Culetsu, the property's executive vice president and general manager, who, during a recent chat, insisted his casino "is not your parents' Mount Airy."

Culetsu, who has a background in hotel management and broke into the gaming business in the late 1980s at what was then still known as Resorts International (now Resorts Atlantic City), credits the introduction of blackjack, craps and the like for his property's current success. "It was huge," he said of last year's legalization of table games. "It made a big difference in revenue [because it] put us on a competitive playing field with [casinos in] New Jersey and Connecticut."

But the gambling den is also doing well with electronic games: According to figures from the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board, Mount Airy's slot revenue for the 12-month period ending June 30 was 11.83 percent better than in the previous year. Statewide, slot income rose an average of 7.8 percent, making Mount Airy's increase more than 50 percent higher than that of its Keystone State competition.

Not that Culetsu and his minions are resting on their laurels. Although nothing is set in stone, he does have expansion on his mind; his "wish list" includes more hotel rooms and a permanent performance venue larger than the current space, Gypsies Lounge & Nightclub, which seats a few hundred patrons.