Gambling Hall

The Sands Casino Resort in Bethlehem announced Thursday that it plans to open a retail mall - the Shoppes at Sands - in the fall as the next phase of its expansion. The $743 million casino debuted on the former Bethlehem Steel plant in May 2009. The slowed economy and credit crisis forced the gambling hall's owner, Las Vegas Sands Corp. - to postpone development of a hotel and retail mall until conditions improved. Development of the 300-room hotel resumed late last year, and it is scheduled to open next month.

SugarHouse Casino will open to invited guests Sept. 20 and 22 for a test run of its 1,600 slot machines and 40 table games in a dress rehearsal for 800 workers. With the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board's approval, the public launch of Philadelphia's first gambling hall will follow at 1 p.m. Sept. 23. The casino's take from the test days will be divided among four charities: the Abramson Cancer Center of the University of Pennsylvania, the Fraternal Order of Police Survivors Fund, the Greater Philadelphia Traditions Fund, and the Philadelphia Veterans Multi-Service and Education Center.

A stone's throw from where George Washington and his troops camped for the winter, Valley Forge Casino Resort opened early Saturday and became the Philadelphia region's fourth gambling hall. The $165 million casino in Upper Merion Township becomes Pennsylvania's 11th; its smallest, with a 33,222-square-foot gaming floor; and the only one so far with special restrictions on who can gamble. Security guards stationed at the edge of the casino floor watched as Ingrid Walker, 69, of Linwood, Delaware County, slid her access card into an electronic gateway.

Although Sands Casino Resort Bethlehem grossed the second highest slots revenue in the state last year, and generated the most from table games, Wall Street gaming analysts say parent company Las Vegas Sands Corp. may be looking to unload it to focus on developments in Asia and Europe. The Las Vegas-based giant, which owns the Venetian and Palazzo on the Strip, was among the first major American gambling companies to establish a presence in Macau, a tiny peninsula on the southeastern tip of China.

Traffic's constant vibration, especially after sports events, has left her home near the stadium complex and those of her neighbors "crumbling," Judy Cerrone says, tearing up their foundations. "We absolutely don't want a casino south of Oregon Avenue. We are prisoners of our homes," said Cerrone, president of Stadium Community Council, a civic group. She was among about 60 people who spoke Wednesday to the state Gaming Control Board about the possible effects of a second Philadelphia gambling hall.

In a move that increased the prospect of a strike next week by gambling- hall employees, the Casino Association of New Jersey yesterday suspended one of its 10 members, which had secretly negotiated a separate contract with its hotel and restaurant workers. The suspension, made in anticipation of expulsion, applies to Harrah's Marina Hotel Casino, the most consistently profitable gambling hall in Atlantic City. The other gambling-hall owners contend that they cannot afford to pay as much as Harrah will under its five-year contract reached last month with Local 54 of the Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees International Union.

With the rattle of drums and a company pep rally, Bally Manufacturing Corp. officials announced a name change yesterday at the Golden Nugget Casino/Hotel, which it purchased earlier this year for nearly $440 million. During an evening "Bally's rally," company officials unveiled a giant ice-sculpture carved with the letters of the new name: Bally's Nugget. "We're giving you back what you so richly deserve," Richard Gillman, chairman of the board for Bally's Park Place Casino Hotel, told Nugget employees.

Now that the state Supreme Court has shot down Foxwoods' final appeal of the revocation of its casino license, the chairman of the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board says it is up to the legislature to put that license for a second Philadelphia casino out to bid statewide. "As far as rebidding out, the General Assembly has some interest to expand the appropriate area to other parts of the state," William H. Ryan Jr. said Saturday. "It will be up to the General Assembly on how to proceed on this.

The deal that could have made Atlantic City's smallest casino the first U.S. brick-and-mortar gambling hall owned by an online-gambling company is no more. On Wednesday, Atlantic Club Casino Hotel announced that a purchase agreement with Rational Group US Holdings, the British company that owns the PokerStars and Full Tilt Poker websites, has been terminated. Michael Frawley, the casino's chief operating officer, said: "The Atlantic Club remains committed to the aggressive pursuit of the opportunities presented by online gaming.